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Children from poor backgrounds don’t have access to good books. Bangalore couple is changing that with their ever-growing network of libraries.

A little over a decade ago, if anyone had told Vimala and Umesh Malhotra that their mission in life would be to set up libraries for children, they would probably have laughed. But then, they wouldn’t have accounted for boredom.

The Malhotras were a typical IT couple and had just moved back to Bangalore in 1999 with their four-year-old son Tarutr, after nearly eight years at Infosys in California. But little Tarutr was bored. What he and his mother missed the most was a good library. Vimala says, “We used to go to the library for my son, and it had so many activities; back in India, the lack of a good library where children could have their space, where no one tells them to keep quiet, and it is their hangout zone was lacking.”

That got her thinking about setting up a library.

Meanwhile, Umesh Malhotra had started an IT company of his own, called Bangalore Labs, along with four other promoters. But he too was soon weary of it and sold his stake in 2002. After he quit, there were many job offers but this time he wanted to make sure he was heading in the right direction.

“I waited nine months. I thought, let me think through what I want to do in life. My wife wanted to start a library and I said okay, I think I can be the project manager, and that began in March, 2003.”

Their brainchild was called Hippocampus, named after the part of the brain associated with learning and memory. It was set up in Koramangala, Bangalore.

Hippocampus is not just a library. It is, as Vimala imagined it, a kids’ hangout zone. Children can sit in corners reading a book; they can sign up for various activities like painting, aeromodelling, carpentry or sign up for a science club. In fact, it is these activities that engage the child’s interest that has made the library a success.

Umesh Malhotra wanted to do more. “We created a great space for urban kids, but what is happening in the slums of Bangalore?” he says.

He started meeting government schools and development sector workers to understand why they did not have or even think of having a library. “In many ways I started advocating it.”

While they all acknowledged the need for a library, they grappled with how to get children to read. Children do not read anymore, they said, but Malhotra knew better.

His initial response though, was to give money to people to help buy books and run libraries in the slums. Big mistake!

“The two or three people we had given money to, their libraries never worked because they were always giving us excuses, ‘you know children are not interested; I can’t find someone to run a library’, and I thought, come on, I just spent Rs. 40,000 on a library and you are giving me these excuses,” says Malhotra.

He knew he could not do this on his own, and he knew the model had to be tested. What worked for a city library may not work for a government school library. For one, reading abilities were different and an English books-based library may not work. So he partnered with the Akshara Foundation, which was internally discussing the same issue: The need for libraries in government schools.

In their trial-and-error testing period between 2004 and 2006, they built 52 libraries around Bangalore. And in the process, found a model that could work for government schools.

This model has three arms: Hippocampus, the parent library, runs for profit; Hippocampus Reading Foundation (HRF) focusses on government schools in cities and the rural areas; and a Book Council sorts through content from various publishers and drafts catalogues for urban poor, and rural children.

HRF sets up libraries by partnering with local NGOs, who finance and maintain these libraries. A government school teacher runs the library; children pay a membership fee of Rs. 10 per month. However, in most cases the partner NGO funds the librarian’s fee as well. “The initial cost of setting up a library is Rs. 10,000 and then per year, the cost for getting new books is approximately Rs. 3,000,” says Maitreyee Kumar, founder, Dream School Foundation, which has set up 10 libraries in partnership with HRF.

For Hippocampus, the Malhotras had gone through a list of 20,000 titles to choose 3,000 which they ordered from the US. But for HRF, they needed to localise the content. That’s where the Book Council came in. Vimala, along with her colleague, Arvinda Anantharaman had the task of organizing a catalog of books for government school children. “For a language like English you have a library list of anywhere upwards of 20,000 titles across different genres. We would be lucky if we even had 800 Kannada storybooks to choose from. Right now, we only have 300 Kannada books available through various publishers,” says Vimala. So far, they have hand-picked 150 books per library across six levels.

Each level has approximately 10 to 12 books. Even so, four books in every set of 12 tend to go out of publishing at some point. This is something they constantly have to work on for the HRF programme.

The books are matched to the children’s reading levels which are graded under a color-coding system called GROW BY Reading (GBR). The acronym GROW BY stands for green, red, orange, white, blue, and yellow-green is the lowest level and yellow the highest. GBR also creates activities around the books that take the children beyond the content in the book. For example, they make animal masks based on a book they read on animals or discuss issues raised in the books.

In the urban poor areas, these libraries are already making a difference. Children’s reading levels are up between 30 and 70 percent. The partnership with Akshara Foundation has now ended, but the Foundation has set up 1,410 libraries across Karnataka based on what is learned through the initial exercise together. HRF, on its part, has added 150-odd libraries to the initial 52. Its catalog is now available for books in five languages (Kannada, Tamil, Urdu, English, and Hindi).

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An inspiring story coming from Pune where a couple has sold their jewelries to construct an oxygen generation plant for soldiers at Siachen. The name of the couple are Yogesh & Sumedha Chithade and they belong to Pune city.

In 2018, The couple had decided to construct an oxygen generation plant for soldiers at Siachen so they pledged to sell all their jewelries to construct this plant. Now after one year of their pledge, They have inaugurated the oxygen generation plant in Siachen. This plant will help nearly 20,000 people.

This plant will help Indian Army soldiers to refill their oxygen cylinders. The couple said, ” It is so easy for us to breathe here, but at 22,000 feet, it is extremely difficult to breathe. It’s our duty to serve the needs of our soldiers.”

Yogesh & Sumedha Chithade are the parent of a serving army major. In 2018, They sold all their jewelries and raised Rs 1.25 lakh for this oxygen generation plant for soldiers but the cost of this plant was around Rs 1.10 crore so they formed a charitable trust and registered it with the Charity Commissioner Office in Pune.

After this many people contributed to this and they successfully installed the oxygen generation plant in Siachen. Yogesh Chithade was in Indian Air force so he knows the condition of Siachen very well.

He wanted to reduce the transportation cost and time to deliver oxygen in Siachen so the idea of installing the oxygen generation plant came in his mind and Yogesh & Sumedha Chithade installed this plant in just one year.

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ipledgefor | Kevin Richardson Foundation

Kevin Richardson’s unique relationship with some of Africa’s apex predators has opened many doors and captivated the imagination of many people throughout the world. He has presented and produced several documentaries that detail his relationships with the animals and highlight the plight of lions both in captivity and in the wild.

Mission

The Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary’s mission is to provide a self-sustaining African carnivore sanctuary for the purposes of wild species preservation. Through education, outreach, and funding, our mission is to bring awareness to the rapid decline of large carnivores in Africa due to habitat loss, human-predator conflict, the illegal bush meat trade, unscrupulous hunting, disease, and illegal trade.

What is ipledgefor?

ipledgefor is a Causefunding platform which redefines the way people help Causes and Community while ensuring accessibility of Causefunding for all.

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Charity can mean different things to different people, but for Loganathan, it has only one meaning — an opportunity to serve others.

Born in a family of daily-wage laborers, he could not study beyond Class 6 because of financial constraints.

“I was 12 when I began working in paper mills and workshops. I don’t want any child to face such difficulties and give up on their dreams, so I do whatever I can to help,” — Loganathan

Motivated by personal hardships, the 52-year-old has been cleaning toilets for the past 17 years to earn extra money that can help fund the education of underprivileged children.

Every day, Loganathan finishes his welding work and heads to clean the bathrooms of private companies in Coimbatore.

“People associate a lot of shame to this job of cleaning washrooms, but I feel nothing of that sort. Is it shameful that I am contributing to the sanitary hygiene of hundreds of people who use them, or is it a shame that I use the money to help hundreds of children have a better future? It is those people who need to feel shameful for their narrow ideas!” he asserts.

A native of Kannampalayam, Coimbatore, he started the initiative in 2002 and began collecting clothes and books from well-to-do families to distribute them to orphanages. In addition to this, he continues to send Rs 10,000 every year to the district collector of the city to be sent to government orphanages and has also been instrumental in providing primary education to almost 1,600 students living in orphanages.

Nothing in life is simple, though. Despite his noble intentions, Loganathan had to face criticism from all directions for the one hour job he does after his welding shift. “Friends and family were not happy with the work I was doing. Many even stopped talking to me, but I didn’t let it bother me. I began by earning Rs 50 for an hour, and it eventually increased to Rs. 2,000 every month and all of it goes to the orphanages,” he adds. Loganathan’s reasoning was pretty basic, less labor, more money in less time, and this forward-thinking man did not let taboos, stigmas or even the taunts from friends stop him from doing what he believes in — education for all.

To help support his family and his vision, he managed to start his welding shop in 2018, as his previous employers were skeptical about his part-time toilet-cleaning job.

“I did not want to be fired from work and then struggle to find a balance between my family and the orphanages. I can never choose between the two. My workshop now allows me the flexibility to continue cleaning toilets, without any judgment,” says the man.

After years of good work, the criticism has faded, and many of his family members feel proud of him. “My daughter is now studying in Class 12, and my son is doing his MBA. I hope that they keep helping others after I am gone,” says Loganathan, who dreams of creating a charitable, educational trust in the coming future to ensure that poor children of Tamil Nadu never have to compromise on education for the lack of funds!

Loganathan’s inspiring journey is a testimony of how a common man can bring a sea of change by doing instead of just speaking that no work is beneath anyone.

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It’s reported that up to billions of tons of garbage ends up in the ocean and landfills every year. In an effort to lessen that number and breathe new life into reusable waste, Amarildo Silva from Brazil, 23, has developed a simple yet valuable hobby for sustainability.

A store cashier by day and craftsman by night, Silva collects discarded tires and transforms them into eco-friendly and comfortable beds for animals. With his family’s help, he gathers every tire he can find from the streets or the landfills.

This hardworking man would then clean the tires one by one and paint beautiful designs on them. Then, he would fit a circular mattress in the tire for a more comfortable feel.

Proud of his craft, he began selling these beds on his Instagram, which quickly became extremely popular. Silva has sold more than 500 tire-beds in just two years!

He currently only delivers to Brazilian addresses, but he has received requests for orders from Europe, North America, and Asia. What began as a side hobby quickly turned into a business.

The best part? His hobby has been an amazing help in minimizing waste. Taking a leaf from his success, he also produces flowerpots and containers from reusable materials.

A man with a heart of gold, Silva also takes care of abandoned animals and keen on holding educational talks in schools to bring awareness to the younger generation.

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‘My School, My Farm’: Mizoram #IAS #ShashankaAla Tackles Malnutrition | ipledgefor By March 2020, the ultimate objective is to make every school, Anganwadi and childcare institution in Lawngtlai self-sufficient in local varieties of fruits and vegetables,” says #IAS officer Shashanka Ala, the Deputy Commissioner of Mizoram’s remotest and most backward district. On her first visit to the remote hill slopes of Lawngtlai District, Mizoram, for her new posting, Shashanka Ala, a 2014-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was struck by the sheer time and distance it took to get there. “It’s a 10-hour drive south from Aizawl (approximately 296 km) on a bad road, which during the monsoons is struck by landslides, resulting in delays that can take up to an entire day,” says the Deputy Commissioner. Most fruits and vegetables that come on trucks from Silchar in Assam, which is a further 180 km north of Aizawl, take two days to arrive. Once they reach Lawngtlai, these perishables are unfit to consume, and the quality ones are too expensive to purchase. The problem is not just limited to perishable goods; even essentials like sugar and salt are of substandard quality. Every time an IAS officer is posted to an area, they calculate the distance between the district center to the state capital, which in the plains are often self-sufficient administrative units. Say, you’re administering a rural district in Telangana which 150 km away from a city like Hyderabad. In this city, you can obtain all the essentials for the district instead of waiting for supplies from Haryana. Aizawl, however, isn’t self-sufficient, and most items come from Silchar. “Moreover, the market is driven by what’s pushed from Silchar, and not what’s bought from Lawngtlai district, which shares a border with Bangladesh and Myanmar. The children in this district belonging mostly to the Chakma and Lai ethnic minorities aren’t even fed a variety of quality vegetables because locals believe they won’t even get them. They eat this leafy vegetable stew and rice which comes from the public distribution system,” says Shashanka. Consequently, the district is home to the highest percentage of stunted (35.3%), severely wasted (5.9%) and underweight (21.3%) children under the age of five in #Mizoram. Meanwhile, the new Deputy Commissioner was slowly settling in. Having lived in cities all her life, this was also the time she got into gardening. Growing native varieties of local fruits and vegetables in her garden, she had an idea — why not extend the same to schools and anganwadis, instead of waiting for them to be transported from Aizawl or Silchar? My School, My FarmTo address malnutrition in her district, Shashanka and her team designed a unique solution — ‘Kan Sikul, Kan Huan’ (English translation: ‘My School, My Farm’). Blending with the Centre’s Poshan Abhiyan scheme launched last year to address malnutrition, this initiative seeks to fulfill the dietary and nutritional needs of children.“Every school and Anganwadi will have a small kitchen and nutrition garden in their own premises. Since there is no plain land available, all the gardens are made on terraces. These schools and anganwadis source their fruit/vegetable seeds and compost from the district administration. They can now cook their mid-day meals using the food they have grown themselves instead of waiting for a truck from Silchar or Aizawl,” informs Shashanka. Got an inspiring story? Email Now! -ipledgefor.a.cause@gmail.com Coming soon — http://ipledgefor.org

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"It's not about how many lives we change, but about how much we change in their regular lives. I remember how a girl student came to me to tell how she had pushed all the women in her family to start using sanitary napkins after the session. This is what motivates me to continue." -Abhishek.

Born in a Golaghat, Assam, Abhishek grew up observing the reality of class, caste or gender-based discrimination. It was these observations that pushed him to choose a life in social work. A Political Science college student then, Abhishek would somehow collect funds to buy school supplies for students coming from low-income houses.

Eventually, after graduation, he was able to set up a non-profit youth organization, All & Sundry in 2012. Under the organization, Abhishek mobilized Assam's youth towards various social projects that have had a grassroots impact. One such initiative, The White Revolution: A Sanitary Pad Bank for the Needy Ones, launched in 2017, is very close to his heart.

"In my district, women still don't use sanitary napkins or have any awareness about menstrual hygiene. Shockingly, when I would ask them about sanitary napkins, many would not even know about it, while others would laugh stating that the packaging looks like biscuit packets. The zero awareness is what pushed me to launch the white revolution," he says.

Majorly focused on helping school girls, especially in the remote tea garden areas and border conflict zones; the initiative is the first sanitary pad bank in Assam. We have a holistic approach to this. It begins with starting a conversation, breaking inhibitions to hygiene and the kind of food they should eat during periods.

For instance, studies claim that chocolate is helpful during periods, but these girls come from families that might not be able to afford it. So, instead, we suggest eating bananas or laddus made of til (sesame seeds), Abhishek informs. We have been able to change the lives of 750 girls by now and are proud of that because through repeated follow-ups we have seen how they have transformed their lifestyle and are encouraging others to follow it!

Owing to his efforts, Abhishek has received several accolades; appreciation letters from the Prime Minister's Office in 2015, Prime Minister's House in 2016, Embassy of India in Bangkok in 2014, American Center to India in 2012 and Hon'ble Governors of Assam in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

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"Voluntary worker Dr. Aizan Sofia Amin is a firm believer in the saying “that which does not kill us makes us stronger”.

Aizan Sofia, who lost her right leg to bone cancer at 16, refuses to let her physical disability stop her from dedicating her time, resources and energy to volunteer for humanitarian activities.

The senior lecturer at University Kebang­saan Malaysia (UKM) in psychology counseling, disability, and social work is a recipient of the Tokoh Pekerja Negara 2019 award for the disabled category.

Ever since she graduated from Inter­national Islamic University Malaysia with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in her early 20s, her days have been packed with volunteer work. “In university, I was isolated by my peers and bullied. I had low self-esteem. People discriminated against me and I felt alone."

“But when I became a volunteer, I felt alive. I felt like I could contribute something and that made me feel valued,” she said in an interview.

Aizan Sofia, 36, was trained in public speaking by Makna founder Datuk Mohd Farid Ariffin and soon started giving inspirational talks aside from doing administrative work in the office as a volunteer.

“I used not to be able to look at people in the eye when talking to them. I was not confident about my English, but my experience as a volunteer at Makna helped me develop communication skills. It changed my life,” she said.

Not long after that, she also volunteered for the Islamic Relief Malaysia (IRM) doing fundraising and charity sales.

In 2010, she pursued a Doctorate of Phil­osophy focusing on disabilities at Glasgow University, Scotland, where she was also involved in fundraising for activities for Muslims there.

After completing her studies and returning to Malaysia, Aizan Sofia continued to volunteer with the IRM.

She was recently named the IRM Human­itarian Icon 2018-2020 alongside celebrities such as Irma Hasmie, Diana Amir and Ashraf Muslim.

At the national level, Aizan Sofia is a member of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities and a Transformasi Nasional 2050 ambassador.

She also provides training on basic counseling skills to other volunteers.

“When we volunteer, it looks like we are contributing to other people, but we are actually contributing to our own self-development. We don’t lose anything by giving."

“My message to the youth is for them to be active and proactive, and to do something outside of their comfort zone.

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“I am Gauri Kapur, from Sonepat, Haryana and I got diagnosed with brain cancer in 2016. Now is the most crucial time for me as I suffer a lot. In this specific time who helped me the most is my best friend Supriya Singh. Supriya lives in Kolkata. She is 21 years old and we met on the internet. During this time she has been very supportive of me.

Maybe I cannot ever return what she has done for me, but I would like to share a few poems that she has written for me. She is a very good writer and her poems helped to psychologically to deal with cancer. Please take out some moments of your precious time and read these poems. And I appeal to everyone that a cancer patient is not a burden. Just like everyone, we need your love and care.

The poems Supriya wrote for her.

I saw your picture and I smiled with pride. I mean just look at her.

How can she look so damn pretty, her hair so smooth and the twinkle in her eyes.

The pink of her lips curves beautifully in smile.

You must have been happy then, you look soo young, rejuvenated, like spring at its infancy.

How can you be best at everything? The elegance you use while you sit, The way you hold your head high.

You were so different then. You didn’t care of the world. You were the spark of a lover’s heart.

And you played upon the chords attached to the nerve closest to my heart.

I am sad to note. where have your splendor gone? Why has it all converged to your smile?

Ahh, that smile which smiles with gloom engulfed. I so miss your vigor, Your words of official pride.

But it’s weird that I have you all to myself. With all your pains and pleasures.

With your reasons to smile or cry. with your cancer stories.

I am there to notice the hoarse in your voice. There to feel the pain in your head.

I wish people could see like me. You are not the malignant cell in your head.

You are not even the blood you spit. You are not your visits to a doctor. You aren’t your decreasing weight.

You are that girl who danced her heart out, who sang in the voice notes.

Who fought for a social cause. Who bravely bore stares in the park.

You can still hold your head high. because it belongs there.

You can still scorn the world. who think you cannot.

Credits - The Logical Indian

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