Your support is helping 255+ children grow by reading...

Friday, October 7, 2011
Thank you for supporting the 2 community libraries last year. ILP started these libraries in November 2010, with the help of Sparsha Trust an organization which works with the Sanjeevani Nagar and Bainahalli communities.

When Abhi's and Ambika's mother passed away three years ago, their father re-married and left the children to fend for themselves. Both children dropped out of school. Thanks to Sparsha trust, these childen were put through an intensive bridge program and now go to regular school. Ten year old Abhi is too young to realize the reality around him, but Ambika, who is now in the 7th standard is crystal clear that she wants to become a Science teacher. Abhi and Ambika have now become regular users of Gnana Mitra – the Community Library at Byanahalli. Reading simple books in Kannada has helped develop their language skills. They are more than enthusiastic to narrate the stories they read. As their language skills improved, their comprehension improved and so did their self confidence. The Byanahalli village is off the Bangalore- Bellary road, very close to the Stone Quarry of Bettalsuru. It caters to the children in the surrounding villages.
Asha who is 12 years and is now in the 5th standard, was also a dropout. Her mother earns the livelihood through basket weaving and her father is an alcoholic. He often snatched the mother’s daily earnings. Going to bed hungry was not unusual; going to school was obviously not a priority. Asha was sent for basket weaving. Luckily she was discovered by Sparsha Trust and her world has a totally a new meaning now. She says she enjoys reading and to be with other school children and what she said astounded me, “I never knew such a world exists- that of reading books on various topics!” Asha is a regular user of the Sanjeevani nagar library.
It is moving to see these children trying hard to do so much with so little and never losing hope. The two community libraries are a world by themselves to these children and to other children who enjoy reading. They also provide a quiet space for children to sit and do their home work.
There are 888 books in the Sanjeevani Nagar library and 680 books at Byanahalli. The library uses the Grow by Reading methodology of the Hippocampus Reading Foundation. Reading levels of children are assessed. The books in the library are also graded. The librarian then leads them to read books at their skill levels, helps improve their reading comprehension and fluency at a pace that they are comfortable with.
From August this year, instead of bringing the children to the libraries, we decided to take these libraries to children. We have identified three government schools with no libraries, in the neighborhood of our libraries. Children from these schools are being issued books on a regular basis by our community librarians who visit these schools. The community library acts like a feeder library. So, now 412 children from the Sanjeevani Nagar Government school, Channahalli Government School and Kuduregere government school have access to good books.

We would like to provide excellent libraries, stocked with good reading content, which makes reading joyful, in every government school in the vicinity of the Sanjeevani Nagar and Byanahalli. We would like see these libraries turn into learning spaces, equipped with a science corner, a sports corner and even a computer corner. We need your help to make this a reality, because our children deserve nothing less!

... Thanks to Shanmugam, an ILP Volunteer for the update...

Struggles and successes of students supported by ILP.

From Newspaper Delivery Boy to Entrepreneur!

I remember him as a boy with a perpetually serious expression. Purushotham stood out from the rest of his group because of his fluency in English and his conversational skills. He was only thirteen years old at the time when he first became associated with ILP.

Purushotham was selected by ILP under its scholarship initiative, the Puraskara scheme, in 2005 - the second year of the scheme. At that time, he was studying in the 8th standard, at a government aided school in Bengaluru's Yeshwantpura suburb.
Purushotham's father is a tailor and although he excelled in his work, was an alcoholic and spent all his earnings on liquor. This left the household economics in shambles and required his mother to work full time to keep the household together and to raise young Purushotham and his younger sister, Kala, and to put them through school. Her wages as a cleaner and packer of lentils at a grocery store barely met the household expenses, and so, from his seventh standard, Purushotham worked part-time to augment the family income.

Purushotham would wake up at 5:00 in the morning to work in a local bakery and later deliver newspapers to the neighborhood houses. The extra income helped keep himself and his sister in school and added valuable rupees to the household finances. The family of four lived in a small one-room tenement in the Akiappa Garden locality.
His selection by ILP for its scholarship assistance program eased the family's financial strain and Purushotham could reduce his work hours at the bakery. He completed his 10th standard with a first class and selected commerce as his stream of study for his pre-university course. ILP connected him to the NGO, Prerana, and helped him secure a post-matric scholarship for PUC.

Shanmugam, a volunteer with ILP, acted as his mentor and guided him on subjects that he found difficult. Purushotham completed his pre-university course in commerce with a first class and was accepted for his B.Com degree at Bapu College, in the city. Since his college hours are in the morning, he uses his afternoons to work part-time at a super-market near his home. He takes home a total of Rs 3500 with provident fund and other benefits. Meanwhile, he has not only continued with the newspaper delivery activity that he started while at school, but has grown it into a small newspaper sub-agency business that delivers to 120 houses and adds Rs 1300 to the family income every month.
Purushotham is no longer dependent on anyone to support his education. He is now in the final year of his degree course and has been supporting himself through the three years of his undergraduate study. He also supports his sister, who is studying in the second year of her pre-university course. He has become the 'man' of the house, handling all the important decisions for his family while his father continues to default on his responsibilities because of his alcoholism, The family has moved into better accommodation in the same neighborhood and Purushotham owns his own two-wheeled transport.
Purushotham wants to do a masters course in Financial Administration after his B.Com. His hard work and discipline, entrepreneurial spirit and never-say-die attitude has carried him from the depths of poverty to a position of strength in today's competitive environment. His past struggles and experience gives him a unique perspective to perform, excel and succeed.
Purushotham is an example of how much lives can be transformed through education and literacy, no matter the difficulties involved and the uniqueness of each situation. Many more young lives are waiting for our support and Purushotham's example is what should carry us through to each of them.
We wish him the very best in his future!
Contributed by Sindhu Naik and Vijaya Raghavan.