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CHILDREN'S LIBRARY ON WHEELS IN MAHARASHTRA CELEBRATES 10th INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL LIBRARY MONTH

October, 2009 - Early last year, the International School Library Day committee changed its name to the International School Library Month, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of recognizing all that a school library does for its children. The idea is to allow school libraries all over the world to choose a day this month to stress the importance books are for young ones.

According to Nirmal and Sharad Pendharkar, co-founders of the PaanPoee Vachanalaya, in Sanskrit meaning 'a stand by the roadside, offering water to thirsty passerby's' and an 'abode for reading', or library, they consider the real celebration of what a school library can do to guide a youngster is more of year-round event!

"Have you ever watched a child holding a book for the first time?", asks Sharad. "They simply hold them in their hands, turning them over and over, their eyes wide in wonder. They embrace the weight of the book and are mesmerized by the scent of the pages. To me, introducing a village child to books, and to the many doors the book has the power to open for the little one's future is no less important than growing up with clean drinking water, hygiene, roads and everything else so many people take for granted.

"Consider this as good nutrition for the mind."

A lot of children growing up in the country have never seen a book. This makes their first days in primary school, if there is one available in the first place, very discouraging. Their parents work in the fields to provide food and a shelter, but books are out of their reach.

"Six years ago, we began PaanPoee Program, with our own money. A very small trickle of funding was coming in from family and friends, and there was just enough to get started. With the assistance of Vanasthali Rural Development Center (VRDC)," continues Sharad, "and we have been able to use VRDC's infrastructure to minimize distribution costs".

VRDC has been operational sinced 1981, with schools in eight rural districts, and Nirmal has been a trustee and an active board member there for many years.

Nirmal continues the story. "On bicycles, or the dedicated walking of the VRDC teachers, books are delivered in large water-proof canvas bags, to small villages and communities. Our primary focus is on children at Pre-Primary school ages, between 3 and 6 years old. We bring them books with wonderful characters, pictures, maps, songs and stories to stir their imaginations.

"The bags carry up to 50 books for monthly meetings or training camps. So far, $15,000 has been spent on books, and we have a tracking system to know where each of the 4,500 books are. Through out tracking system, we also know where the book's next stop should be. Sometimes, we do wonder if this system is necessary. The children and their parents give us constant feedback from the communities we serve in rural areas around Maharashtra, and all of this is done for free, thanks to the support of Home of Hope, Inc (HOH)."

Home of Hope, Inc. has been helping locations across India for 12 years. It began as a dream of Nilima Sabharwal, when she returned to India from the United States. Sabharwal has been practicing as a doctor in the San Francisco area, for many years, and this trip in 1997 made it clear to her that she needed to reach out to help others in a more direct way. Her first fund raising program generated $7,800, and since then, the 'grass roots beginning has matured. A team of volunteers have earned more than $1,500,000 for children in need at 16 organizations in India and a new program in Berkeley, California.

In 2007, Sumant Pendharkar, Nirmal and Sharad's son who has lived in the United States for over 24 years, introduced Nilima Sabharwal to the goals of PaanPoee Library Program, and how this was going to expand the reach of VRDC. The proposal was immediately accepted. Funds are going to VRDC for a wide assortment of books, and the PaanPoee Library delivers them to very remote locations.

"The help from HOH has been immediately productive. The funding has allowed hiring of vans to set up a 'mobile library' that has expanded the reach into little villages. We have begun 15 special schools called 'Ashram Schools', set up for the children of migrant workers. There are 54 teachers working with 1,448 students, and the PaanPoee books are taken directly to them", explains Penkharkar.

"From the administrative point, HOH has helped VRDC appoint a part-time office assistant, to help with accounting, follow-up with centers and maintaining status reports; an assistant has been hired to work with shops and publishers directly for more books, mailing to villages and delivering to outlying centers; taking on 2 more members of the team at the office who will work closely with people in villages and sub-centers; equip the organization with material to send to small villages outside of the area they are working in now; and add another 'mobile library'".

What VRDC has accomplished is remarkable. There is a Program called 'Hobby Class Activities' that cover nearly 200 schools. This means 658 teachers are working with nearly 26,000 students in municipal schools in eight districts. It is amazing how many of the teachers in these areas have to carry the books by hand! And there is another special type of schools called 'Remand Homes' or Correctional Facilities for Juvenile Offenders. There are four locations with 16 teachers and nearly 400 students who cannot remain with parents, relatives or place with foster homes for a number of reasons.

There are also 2 places where the mobile library carries books and educational toys, and the goal is to expand this. Currently, one is in Baramati where 57 schools are being worked with, reaching between 80 children each day, and the other is in Somatne, where there are 40 villages, serving 4,000 children.

"Perhaps what is most amazing in the approach we have discovered," states Nirmal, "is how we have reached a level that was never anticipated. The well-organized Jejuri School has strong support from the parents, and is taught by Government approved teachers, but they, too, are accessing books by PaanPoee Program!"