Our Mission
Aim
The right to education - one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by our constitution - cannot be realised without addressing one of its most cardinal building blocks: the ability to read and write, i.e., literacy.
In contemporary times, illiteracy is not just a shortcoming but a major hindrance towards success and development.
“Project Kitab” aims to provide meaningful learning opportunities for literacy expansion outside the formal school system, specifically for the underprivileged sections of society. While the literacy rates among the population in the nation as a whole have been steadily rising, those among the rural population continue to be at the bottom. By providing young students in rural areas with the required resources - like libraries, books, reading drives, etc. - we aim to build and foster foundational literacy among the nation’s future leaders. With the help of structured reading programs combined with fun learning activities, we aim to instil a passion for reading and learning among the students.
With a passionate community of young students who want to make a difference in the world, we will work to meet the educational needs of children to promote literacy, student well-being, scientific temper, and to foster a progressive culture of reading and learning.
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope”, and we at Project Kitab work with the objective to build that bridge for the nation’s future heroes.
“A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft, and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind, hospitals of the soul,
and theme parks of the imagination.”
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Caitlin Moran
“I think it’s the books you read when you’re young that live with you forever.”
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J.K.Rowling
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BENEFICIARIES/ TARGET GROUP
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With that quote at the core of our project, our targeted group of beneficiaries is young children of grade 8 and below. In rural areas specifically, children are in desperate need of books other than their school texts to read. Due to lack of adequate libraries in government schools, these essential needs of children are not being met.
We at Project Kitab work to fulfill these demands of the students, by building libraries in identified areas and conducting literacy expansion activities.
The vision of these children from underdeveloped regions being able to read, write, and advance the nation through their ideas is what keeps this project going.
PLAN OF ACTION
By conducting donation drives through various platforms, our team will work to collect the required books for the community . We will identify ‘book deserts’ in the community, work to extinguish those deserts, and build a garden of knowledge and literacy in their place.
Our vision includes, but is in no way limited to building functional libraries across the identified book deserts, where children can learn and grow. Resources would include access to interesting thought-provoking books of genres ranging from fiction and fantasy, to academic and informative. Children will have access to inspiring life stories and biographies, while at the same time getting the opportunity to let their imaginations run wild with adventure and mystery stories.
Further, we will hold regular reading sessions with the children to instill in them a sense of passion and zeal for reading.
“The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.”
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-
Elizabeth Hardwick