Series of Fortunate Events

2018 for Bookworm has been a year of many, many events. Some of which we engineer in our manic lets-make-a-difference kind of way and others have happened to us.

In a conversation on our meeting-rug, there was a cloud of despondency around us. We had just experienced serious illness in one of our most loved team member’s family, we were loosing other team members to marriage, family pressure, illness, personal career conflict like a rush of wind on a pile of dry leaves and our funds at Bookworm are running desperately low as I do not have the foresight to make budgets, fundraise voraciously and think about the future. Stephie said, “All bad things are happening to Bookworm” and the cloud grew larger, for only a moment.

I know not where the insight comes from every time, but it does. I raised my head and my strong voice reminded her and the team upon the rug that we had indeed had a very good year. A series of wonderful things had happened to us and that must be our focus. We share that with you here, knowing that each of you who read our newsletters walk with us on this journey and together we are stronger because of you.

In January,

we got access to a space in Indiranagar Chimbel, thanks to Krystle Miranda. This is our largest yet in the highly dense community. We moved from a very, very small room to a little house that is now the Community Library in Chimbel. It is a haven and open three times a week for the children. We are delighted to strengthen our presence here, now into its 7th year.

In February,

we had our biggest Jumble Sale fund raiser ever! We raised enough of funds to keep our outreach program alive for another year and additional resources to fund our Nhoi – Goa River Draw Project for twelve months. We invited architect Rhea D’Souza to hold our project and renewed our relationship with 60+ volunteers who helped the sale. We were exhausted but deeply satisfied by the sense of independence that comes from financial autonomy.

In March,

we had an opportunity to go to Bangalore for a meeting and then our friend Thejaswi took us to a books-by-weight sale and we went slightly manic. We managed to buy hundreds of books for our school program because there were amongst us, four manic book buyers who know the collection well and understand books for children even better. It was a gift.

In April,

we gathered all the teachers who are affected and effect our Libraries in School Program at the Goa State Central Library. We had a sharing, a talking about libraries and reading and a shared purpose to go on for another year together. We met the wonderful staff of the Sanjay School in Alto Porvorim and now partner with them in organising library read alouds every week in the school. It was wonderful to have a room full of library believers and foster relationships.

In May,

the Bookworm team renews its commitment through contracts with the Trust. We always hope the people who show promise will stay with us and pull through with another year of love, laughter and incredibly intense, hard work and we were not disappointed. A great, solid team chose to commit in Jewel, Anandita, Stephie, Shraddha, Sakshi, Vandana, Lalita, Deepali, Terence, Monica, Pranita, Rohini, Flavia, Ulka, Uday, Niju and myself. We have good people all over the library now and only good things can follow.

In June,

we retreated for two days with Editors from Pratham Books. We shared, talked, discussed and felt blessed to have such erudite, thoughtful women in the Bookworm space all interested in books and learning. It was our highlight of the month!

In July,

a fantastic bunch of library educators on a journey with us through the Library Educator’s Course, came to visit the library and spend time amongst our shelves. Joy abounded as the Bookworm team did everything they could to creatively conspire to give this wonderful group of people a library experience the Bookworm way.

In August,

we opened yet another community library in Aldona- the Alban Couto Community Library thanks to the unstinting belief and support of Dr Mrs Aurora Couto and many supporters of the Alban Couto Corpus Fund. This is the first children’s library in the community and we hope to grow stronger in the months to come.

In September,

almost like a bolt from the blue we found ourselves moving into a heritage building in the old quarter of Panjim. The Bookworm library now occupies a historic space in Panjim’s education history. We breathe in the same building as the first students of the Marathi Boys School of 1908 of the Mushtifund Saunstha and the atmosphere prompts us to reflect, to measure our actions and to continue to work thoughtfully. A gift of this space was never imagined by any of us and in this month we truly felt that we were fortunate beyond compare!

In October,

we found ourselves in a workshop frenzy. We had workshops for every age group and theme imaginable in the library. We worked with very young ones, that continues through our Pre School Library program, to very old ones in our community stitching and dialogue programs. In-between we did writing and reading workshops, drama and art, photography and music and even celebrate with story dancing in the form of Zumba time. We also invested in professional development workshops thanks to our partnership with Cipla Foundation that supports our learning. It all happens in the library and we are blessed to be a part of it all.

In November,

we discovered through our data analysis during the Term Break of school, that we had triggered reading opportunity in over 3000 children in the past five months enabling around 45000 books to be borrowed and browsed and read. We were doing something phenomenal and meaningful and it can only get better.

In December,

we participated in a large arts festival in the city – Serendipity Arts Festival through the Panjim 175 exhibit and showcased a pre view of our Nhoi project. Over the past 9 months we have connected and infused dialogue around the river with 13 community libraries in Goa. We have documented this process through an incredible collaborative drawing mural that will be linked up in 2019 together with the 500+ artists who worked with us. It was a big finale for the year but also just after we curated the Young GALF event (Goa Arts and Literature Festival) where we bring in school children to talk and listen to some fine writers, poets, thinkers who visit Goa. Both these projects owe deep debt and gratitude to our friends Vivek Menezes and Liz Kemp. So much is possible in collaboration and we experience this every year.

So, before the sun goes down on 2018, we want to thank you again for believing in Bookworm and the act of reading and being a supporter in more ways than you know.

If you know of anyone who could donate money, time or material to our projects please ask them to get in touch with us at mail@bookwormgoa.in or come visit. We look forward to seeing you too and wish you the best of reading joy in 2019.