MYSURU: For a student, new books in a new bag are a pride and joy. Yet, there are many children who have to go without the ubiquitous notebook, which can be a luxury for the underprivileged. Most often, people assume that the government looks after poor children’s needs, but this does not hold good at all times. To bridge the gap, Mysuru-based Spandhana Trust is on a silent mission over the past couple of years, distributing free notebooks to the less privileged, and government schoolchildren across Mysuru district.
The trust, led by Abhinandan Urs, came up with ‘My Dream Book’ – an initiative to provide quality notebooks to students and support them in education. “To support the betterment of children who cannot afford education due to financial problems is our main motto, and as part of this initiative, we are carrying out several unique programmes,” said Urs.It is common to see NGOs and other organisations distributing blankets to destitute and shelterless people during winter nights, but many fail to give similar attention to the notebook.
Though the government provides textbooks free of cost to those studying in government schools, most of the kids still don’t have access to quality notebooks or workbooks. “While students of government schools in rural belts, and kids from poor financial backgrounds request their parents to get them new notebooks, most of them try to manage the entire academic year with one or two notebooks. This was brought to our notice when my friends went there to teach on the weekends. So we came up with this initiative,” said Abhinandan Urs.
Since then, the trust has reached out to over 5,000 students, distributing over 25,000 books, and has covered 20-odd government school students from Class 1 to Class 10.“My Dream Books aims to aims to provide education to underprivileged underprivileged children in the surroundings. We generally collect books from individuals and friends’ circles and donate them to poor students. Several institutes supported this endeavour, and in the past eight or nine years (except during the Covid pandemic), we have been reaching out to students,” he said.
Urs said they also planned a circulating library where they will collect books, novels, encyclopedia and other books, and circulate them among these kids. This project will be taken up in the coming days.“All these years, we were able to buy notebooks and hand them over to children, but after the pandemic, prices of notebooks have almost doubled. A notebook which cost Rs 50 earlier, now costs Rs 85, so from this year we have decided to get notebooks printed from our end, so that they are eco-friendly and are of good quality, to sensitise kids about deforestation,” said Urs.
The Trust members have aimed to distribute at least 1 lakh textbooks this academic year, and also reach out to neighbouring districts and cover more students with the support of like-minded individuals.Those interested in donating notebooks or books to the Trust can contact Abhinandan Urs, 9513551616