As an organization, we are small and yet, we know that we achieve a great many things given all constraints.
It is always heartening to know that our work is being followed and recognized by other individuals and organizations who work in the field.
In the last month, we’ve had a number of visitors, from different parts of the country (and the world) who have come to watch, learn, and be exposed to how Bookworm works.
Ofcourse, when one visits our schools and sites, it is not easy to maintain the role of passive observer, and so they were part of the sessions; holding books, talking to the children and reading stories too!
Starting off with Kanchan and Arti from Akanksha Foundation; an organization that runs schools for children of low-income families in Pune and Mumbai. Kanchan and Arti come with a background of being educators and were keen to see how our sesions are designed and how programs like ours are sustained.
We then had visitors from Udaipur. Sangam and Anjana, both who are a part of the Library Educator’s Course that was organised by the Vidya Bhavan Society in Udaipur. Being involved in hands on work, and part of the course being to conceptualize libraries as a shared space for all curricular ares, and with a focus on sensitizing library educators to respond to the context specific needs of their children; the two spent time in our classrooms and at our sites. The children welcomed them into their spaces and both girls got involved in teaching the kids at our Chimbel MOP site a song from their space.
How our program functions and is sustained is and has always been a question of interest for a number of people. And with interest in this area, we were also visited by Dr. Usha and Ms. Vinita who work with the Reading Cell Elementary Education NCERT. The ladies visited our DAHS school and interacted with the team and our children there.
And our friend Helen brought in her friends to visit our Tonca MOP site. Ian, who dubbed himself ‘Hokey Cokey’ and Sue who watched a session based on the book Mouse and the Big Red Apple, and the kids enjoyed his antics and straight out humor.
Yes, our work is growing, and so also, the circle with which we interact is expanding. We learn when we do, when we talk and when we interact. February has provided many of these moments.
We look forward to more visitors in march as we learn and grow…
Ooooh! Just spotted our ‘Library-in-a-classroom’ kit :). We want to hear what the kiddos think of the kits.