He recalls, too, how the ratadilloes' eyes light up for their bedtime story session with him or Lily. He wonders when they'll begin to read all by themselves . . .
Learning to read: it's a privilege we more or less take for granted where I come from. It's not so everywhere. In Iowa in 2007, I met author and surgeon Kavery Nambisan who has been instrumental in setting up neighbourhood reading schemes in her native India:
The Nalanda Trust offers basic
non-formal education to underprivileged children. Our objective is to
reach out to those kids who have no access to a good basic education
system. We also hope to motivate the parents to send their kids to
school by making them understand that learning will help individuals and
families earn a satisfactory living and help improve their quality of
life in all spheres. We attempt to make them realise that it will
broaden the mind, create awareness and stretch the imagination of their
young so that they are better able to draw upon in-built strengths and
develop various valuable skills.
Rosa Mira Books would like to contribute to work of the Nalanda Trust, which runs on a shoestring and is funded largely by the trustees and 'a few close friends'. Lately it has become a registered charitable trust, so can more easily receive donations from overseas. As yet, RMB hasn't broken even, let alone made the net profit of which it intends to share 10% with Nalanda. However, this month I'm going to send some money anyway, and thought I'd give my blog readers a chance to add to this sum — a couple of dollars, or a handful: any amount will make a difference. If you'd like to, leave a comment or contact me directly and we'll work out how, depending on where you live.
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