Written by Pragati k, IDeA-the ant
My name is Pragati, and I am a development worker based in Assam, Northeast India. I am a part of an organisation called Institute of Development Action-The Action Northeast Trust, in Assam. As far as I can remember, my interest in library education and storytelling-as a professional originate from my urge to re-live my childhood days that I used to spend amidst books.
As a child, I used to be an avid reader. Books used to be the best escape for me as a child. But for me, reading was always an individual activity until I reached Bookworm in August, 2022. My whole idea of books, library, storytelling, and ways of engaging with children took a different shape in the workshop with the Bookworm team. I was unable to express much at the beginning of the 6-days workshop because I was overwhelmed by the way Library was introduced to our team by Bookworm. The 6 days spent at Bookworm brought me a whole new perspective on library as a space; as an organic process.
The read-aloud sessions, storytelling, book games, (and the list goes on) brought to me the joy of reading together, breaking the silence inside the libraries, reading and knowing books through different joyful activities. But most of all, I learnt that library is not only about books. Bookworm unfolded the different aspects of a library- the books, the people, the activities, the act of reading together in a group, the stationeries, and many more things that constitute a library. I learnt that in a library; it is not only a good collection of books that will make children feel welcomed. It is also the facilitator who needs to be present physically, emotionally for children in a library. How we display to the children what our library has to offer them, matters a lot.
A different kind of introduction to books, and reading were introduced which made me read so many books in those 6 days along with attending a rigorous workshop. But one thing that will stay with me as a totally unexpected experience is Stitching in a library. I never thought about stitching as a therapeutic and fun activity which can also be done in a library. I never thought stitching and library can ever be put together. The experience of stitching has brought such joy that I probably cannot put down in words.
But for me as a development professional, the joy and fulfilment were more because I did not enter this journey alone. We were a group of 12 people from the three states of the Northeast, Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland. A bunch of change-makers joining the library movement together was a long-lived dream for me as a development worker.
When association with IDeA started three and half years back, I started handholding and mentoring several other grassroots organisations across in different parts of Assam, Meghalaya, and Manipur. As my work largely revolved around organisations working with children, and Education; I learnt that the practice of reading books among children as well as adults was non-existent. And that’s when I started the conversation on storytelling, and promoting libraries among our children and the communities. A dream of bringing in a library-revolution sprouted, and I started my work around it with whatever limited knowledge I had on the topic. My work gradually got stronger support and motivation from my colleagues at IDeA. We conducted workshops on joyful modes of learning, storytelling, etc. But two years back we realised that what we were doing was not enough. And that is when we decided to collectivise and institutionalise our library initiative across the Northeast region. While developing two different projects on Child Rights and Peace-building, we included promotion of libraries as a strong pillar of the projects. In this process, we reached out to Bookworm Trust requesting for their support in our journey. As planned, in August 2022, a group of 12 change-makers from Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland participated in the workshop at Bookworm as the beginning to their journey of Library Movement in the Northeast.
After the workshop with Bookworm, I feel happy to share with people that I no longer see a library as a strategy to increase learning levels, or as a tool to bridge learning gaps among children. In my journey with the children in the coming days, I will ensure that children are not forced to read but they start loving and enjoying the act of reading, in whichever way they find it the best.
Today, I have a new hope and dream of creating libraries in every village of the North East region, and ensuring that every child has books to read. At the end, I summarise my experience with Bookworm as a participant in the workshop, as a reader, or as a person bringing a team of change-makers to embark on a new journey with a few lines by my colleague Niyar,
“…There will now be a bridge from Goa to the North East
The bridge will be built with books
Thousands of childhoods will pass across
The desire to love people will grow from heart to heart…”
