KOCHI: The hartal called by the LDF and the rains did not stop volunteers of a Facebook group from attending a meet organised at Sacred Heart College here on Saturday, for setting up a library for the children of Kichankani, a remote village in Tanzania. Kichankani has been the subject of a huge social media campaign in the State for the last few months, thanks to Somy Solomon, an Indian expatriate living in rural Tanzania.
Somy, who was moved by the plight of the women and children in Kichankani, who have been trapped in a life of servitude, made an appeal to her Malayali friends on Facebook a few months ago to help the villagers. As a first step, she suggested setting up of a library at Kichankani, and sought help to mobilise resources, including books.
The ‘village library movement’ instantly became a roaring success, collecting about 5,000 books from India, Dubai and Singapore in a short time. Earlier, volunteers of the campaign had met at SH School of Communication and Journalism to make a register of the books, before shipping them to Africa.
“We never expected such a positive response. Many of the volunteers from the other districts came on Friday itself and stayed back to attend the meeting. First, I made an appeal from Tanzania, and it was these people who helped collect the books without expecting any profit. I particularly thank Manoj Ravindran alias ‘Niraksharan’, Chithira Kusuman and Rupesh Kumar for their support,” said Somy, adding that preparation of the register would continue on Sunday. Those who are interested in joining the team at SH may contact 9895938674.