Our Aim with The Owl Library Initiative (TOLI)

Inspired by the children in Anjaw District, Arunachal Pradesh TOLI aims to set up mini-libraries in schools or institutions in rural India or places where children from socially or economically challenging communities congregate. Presently there are over 21 libraries established in anganwadi centres, children's homes, shelter homes and schools in the states of Meghalaya, Assam and Manipur as of 2019. We believe in a decentralised approach so that children are able to get direct access to books.

In order to make this initiative sustainable and to ensure accountability , we collaborate with people from the community including NGOs and the local government authorities. The libraries that we set up are verified by our team located in all eight states of the Northeast of India which is set up on the basis of these criteria (a) need-due to lack of accessibility, (b) location- preferably in rural areas and/or (c) areas where underprivileged/ vulnerable children reside. We also train our volunteers which would include but not limited to book keeping, indexing, maintaining a register of books and generating enthusiasm to read! We also teach ground level volunteers about how to use books such as encyclopaedias, atlas' and dictionaries. Additionally, a student librarian would also be given responsibility in turns to look after the library and to ensure that institutional knowledge gets passed on to other students in the coming years.

By doing this , we are hoping to create a culture of not just acquiring new knowledge, but also one of trust, accountability and collective responsibility. Our biggest aim is pretty straightforward, to enrich the lives of children with the magic of books.

FUTURE PLANS

We understand that there are many places in India that need access to knowledge-based resources and that many a time it can be provided with the good old fashioned habit of reading books. Reading in and of itself is an act of empowerment, and with every child who falls in love with reading, we have one citizen all the more wiser. We have books donated to us in all languages, covering a wide range of topics, and the more children who hitherto had no access to these materials can learn and grow, the better informed they will be.

With this in mind, a group of us have gotten together to work on a voluntary basis in crowdsourcing books and increasing publicity, distributing donated material, and in setting up and maintaining libraries. The idea really is to provide schools or institutions or communities, whether in urban or rural areas, with easy-to-read books that will make learning and reading a joyful and fun process. In the end, our vision is to enrich the lives of children of all ages with reading matter that will not just ensure improved literacy, but provide what we hope a foundation for further learning and self-education.

We will be continuing with library initiative in the topographically challenged regions of Northeast India and later hope to spread out to other far-thrown regions of the country where books could be the lifeline to a better life.

Designed by Akash Paul Lakra

Words by Divya & Badapbiang

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