NONGPOH:
The Ri Bhoi district administration in collaboration with Piramal Foundation on December 16 launched a book drive with the theme ‘Share the gift of reading this Christmas and New Year’ under the Aspirational District initiative.
With an aim to strengthen the existing libraries in government schools, people are being encouraged to donate old or new books at the office of the district administration, Nongpoh or send them by post. The donated books will then be distributed to the various government schools in Ri Bhoi.
Arpit Upadhyaya, Deputy Commissioner of Ri Bhoi, invited and urged people to come forward to support this initiative and make it a successful one.
“The donated books will aid in bringing a lot of difference to someone else’s life, and we need to promote the habit of reading among students,” he said.
The idea behind the book donation drive is to aid in the holistic development of children, to improve learning outcomes in schools, and inculcate a reading habit from an early stage. The team in Ri Bhoi feels that for the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy goals to be realised, a habit of reading needs to be fostered in children. It will also be reaching out to CSR’s and NGO’s for help in this regard.
During their visits to the schools, the team of Piramal Foundation found that age appropriate fiction and non-fiction books were not present at all and schools were not able to fully realise and utilise their libraries. However, it is hopeful that since the district administration has taken the lead, the information would reach out to the general public.
Three prominent colleges of Ri Bhoi have been holding discussions for a book donation drive, and have suggested that a box be placed for people to donate books.
District lead of Piramal Foundation, Mrinmoy Sangma, said, “This campaign will run till March 2023, and a request will be made to the government department offices and colleges to set up similar donation box.”