Why am I fundraising, FAQs

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

OPEN SPACE (Library for ALL ) LIBRARY IN THE SMALL VILLAGE OF NORTH MAHARAHTRA

"Gandhli" happens to be a small village on the banks of Bori river.situated 13 Kms from Amalner, which is a taluka place in Jalgaon District. Its in the mid  between the tribal villages of  Nandurbar  and rural villages of Dhule. The population of this village is around  5000 people and the major livlihood option is agriculture. Most of the Khandesh is arid or semi arid.

I as an Experiential Educator, trainer, NVC Practioner and Consultant had been working with government schools, teachers, teacher educators, children, NGOs, Principal and their leadership (through GANDHI FELLOWSHIP) and CRCs,BRCs and DIETs of different states from North till South of India. And its only one thing that hit me so so badly and thats the children's exposure to joyful learning.

During all my school visits, I find children wanting to explore more through the WORLD OF BOOKS, but do we have that option in the remotest of the villages of India. Probably not as of now..!!

During one of my visits,

When I asked Vaibhav, 10 years old student of this village, do you liek to read books? He said NO.

I asked, "why?" And his response whas something like this, " Mala fakta goshtinchi pustaka awadtat ani bai amhala nusta abhyas karaila lavtat (bore lagta te) . Mala mhanun shale chi pustaka nahi awadat. Mala catoon chi, paryan chi, ganpati chya goshti chya pustak pahije. pan ithe nahi milat te, ani paisa lagto khup"

(English Translation- I only like story books but my teachers tells me to study books (subjects, that are very boring) I would enjoy reading books of fairy tales, cartoons and stories of Lord Ganesha..! We dont get books here and also we have to have lot of money, to buy them.)

In this Village, Gandhli, where I visit quite often, I spoke to many villagers and children and discovered that they all are hungry for knowledge and new things. They want to be more aware about things, and at the same time want their future generation to be holistically developed. Now this fact also made me search more, why these people are in this education wave? And the reason is because, Amalner the city next to them as a huge education backbone of its own.

Amalner has historical importance in the fields of education, industrialization and independence movements. It is host to one of the oldest philosophical centres in India, the Pratap Tatwadnyan Mandir, formerly the Indian Institute of Philosophy.Pandurang Sadashiv Sane, popularly known as Sane Guruji, was one of the famous teachers at Pratap high school. He fought for the independence of India, was a teacher, poet and writer, and wrote many books, including Shyamchi Aai and Bhartiya Sanskriti.

I have been working in the space of "EDUCATION" and "CAPACITY BUILDING OF THE NON FOR PROFITS" from the last 6-7 years ( In the Tiger Reserves of India with the help of WCT ) and this realization came to me, that what am I doing for my own village. And this small thinking gave birth to a small dream, within me of creating a "COMMUNITY READING SPACE, where people from all age groups can come together, no matter if he or she is 8 years old or 50 years old, people can exchange thoughts, discussion on different issues related to the village problems, celebrate their small moments of joy and do many other things, to build a powerful community.

This for me is a bit of hybridization of education,community building, creating reading habits amongst children and youths and development. Tagging it as education will be quite a narrow and limitizing tool as such.,so that of sharing before hand to have more transparency and clarity.

My observation in the government schools across India is they have books, but the reading interests of children is very low and hardly any investment is done on that. In villages, children know only about the books (subjects related) they bring in schools and apart from them the whole knowledge sharing of culture, traditions and folk tales happens orally. This initiative also is a small step to preserve the culture and in open space, we are trying to create some space for children to read and then express themselves in the form of art, creative write ups, sketchings and many more.

Open this space in the form of Library is an entry point to engage with the community and then slowly build a bond and then work with them on issues of low literacy, social problems realted to dowry, health hygiene, drinking water and safetly, early adolesecents and child care and many more.

So,for all this I plan to build a space in my village, named as GANDHLI, almost 12 Kms from Amalner district. I plan to set it up this year and plan to finish the construction by early November. This village has a polulation of 5000 people and I have started doing some dialogue with them. if I do get the funds, I can start working towards it. (Hope is there....)

However, this village people in general or students in particular hardly have access to anything where they would sit and read on different subjects. In schools too, the students are confined to rote learning from limited number of textbooks which hardly adds any value to the human inside. These "OPEN SPACE" will provide people with varied literature, which invariably will lead to better exposure, better understanding and therefore better outlook.

Also I believe children learn a lot of things, on their own, through their life's experiences. " WE NEED TO TRUST THEM" AND "GIVE THEM PLATOFRMS/CREATE PLATOFRMS FOR THEIR GROWTH AND LEARNING.

I know its not east at all and I also know it will have many challenges, but I am ready to support some community and start with the village, where I can make a SMALL DIFFERENCE with everyone's support.

Your smallest contribution will count, so please dont hesitate, to come ahead and make it happen.

At the end would just like to say,

what Martin Luther king said:

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."

  I plan to do with the funds?

Established  Cost along with construction: Rs. 2.5 lakhs

Books/Newspapers: 40,000 (In kind support is welcome) 

Learning Corner: Art material, crafts material, paints, colours- 5000

Furniture: Books shelves and chairs/mats: 50,000

Electricity: Lights and fan (2)- 3-5000(approx)

Library person who is 10th or 12th pass and has some basic skills in place  (Take care of the library) 3000per month =3000*12= 36000

Drinking water facility and water supply- 10-12000 (approx)

Writing boards/white boards/ wirting pens- 2000

Total: 400000

FAQs

Please feel free to call me on 8087609294 /8080936405 or leave a message. Since I work in forest areas, many times the netowork is not that good, so I would get back to you.

Feel free to drop a mail on pallavi.gandhalikar@gmail.com

My linkedin profile to get in touch:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pallavi-gandhalikar-51736125?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile