Students Asked Santa for Books, So This NGO Is Getting Them a Library on Wheels!

Mantra For Change is an NGO run by two Bengaluru-based engineers Santosh More and Khushboo Awasthi. By adopting schools attended by students from low-income families, they work towards fulfilling their needs and wishes.

Some two years ago, one such request of their students took them by surprise. Around Christmas in 2015, they made the children write letters to Santa, asking him for presents. Instead of the usual toys and candies, a majority of them wished for books. Their schools couldn’t afford to have a library.

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Santosh and Khushboo knew they had to help them.

But how? With no space in the already-cramped schools, it would’ve been impossible to include a library there.

This was when they came up with the idea of setting up a mobile library. They would fill a van with books and take it from one school to the other so that the students could read them.

“We thought of keeping shared resources so that many students can access the same books. Also, that would be cost-effective as well,” Khushboo told Edex Live.

Getting the books was the easy part, arranging a van to keep them wasn’t. The duo then decided to raise funds to help the children get their own mobile library full of colourful storybooks and reading material. They decided to call it FLOW- Fun with Library on Wheels.

They began a crowdfunding campaign online, and are optimistic that with the help of people who believe in their cause, they’ll be able to raise enough funds. “We’re yet to raise enough money for the van. For the time being, we have used a community centre near KR Market as our library. Students from nearby schools can access resources from there,” Khushboo told Edex Live.

If you want to help these children discover the joy of reading, you can donate here.

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