Jamshedpur, Dec. 6: Continuing their social activity to build a sound and sustainable society, first-year students of XLRI, Jamshedpur caused plenty of faces to light up with joy and happiness when they created a library for the primary school children of Andhra Bhakta Shri Ram Mandiram Madhya Vidyalaya in Bistupur.
The project, related to their course in Organisational Behaviour taken by Father Antony Uvari, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Administration, and Organizational Behaviour professor, was undertaken in October of this year.
A group of ten, still in their second term in the Human Resources Management course, found this school when they decided to do something that would improve the state of education in our country. Andhra Bhakta Shri Ram Mandiram Madhya Vidyalaya, a Telugu-medium school in Bistupur, seemed like the perfect choice, with an empty room waiting to be utilised to its fullest.
The students started from scratch � scrubbing the floors, painting the walls, collecting old books from various professors on their campus, purchasing paraphernalia (book shelves, a rug, colourful and educational posters, etc.) � and finally, on 4th December, the library was inaugurated by Ms. C.H. Nisha, the Principal of the school.
The children targeted were mostly primary school kids, in grades one to five. In coordination with this, the books spanned reading levels one to three, in three different languages � English, Hindi, and Telugu � and of different genres such as storybooks, activity books, and educational books.
The students also conducted interviews with Ms. C.H. Nisha and the teachers. The children entered the library with enthusiasm, their excitement and wonder was infectious.
After being instructed to treat the library and its contents with utmost respect and care, the children immediately nodded and picked up their first books in the library and sat down to read, making its first moments a success.