Book Drives: A Free Way to Provide Resources to Poor

By Udit Garg:

“This Book fills the much-needed gap”

I suppose this quotation by Late Moses Hadas speaks a lot by itself. This sentence can have a lot of meanings and one of them is- This book which you just provided will be used for education of a poor child. Thank you for giving it to him. A wonderful thought and much needed too.

Many NGOs like Smile foundation, Aviva etc. have been working very hard to provide poor children with a very important resource to pursue their studies. I still remember when I was in class 9th a NGO called Asha came to school and conducted a book drive and asked all the students to donate their books of the previous class to the society. I still remember, I and my friends used to laugh at this, why would they need it? But now I understand. I understand that I might have completed my studies of that class and those books are no longer useful to me but there are many who can use the very same books to educate themselves and become what their parents were not able to.

It’s been 3 years and I’ve moved out of where I once lived but till today I donate my old books to society. For us these books might cost a few hundreds or thousands but for the poor children these books are of no quantifiable worth, they can take them and their families to the mountains of happiness.

I still remember, I was wandering around in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, in early February during the World Book Fair and couldn’t help but notice that Aviva had installed a special stall where the volunteers were welcoming people to donate books. They had also installed various donation boxes around the Pragati Maidan so that people can donate money as well for the benefits of poor children. According to Monthly Report of Aviva a total of 597 books were collected during World Book Fair and around Rs. 15,000 through the donation boxes. Also, Vodafone, being the official partner of Aviva Book Drive donated Rs. 40,000 plus the cost of 15,000 messages collected by the drive to the Aviva Book Drive Fund.

I believe, there are thousands of course books and unwanted novels lying down in one’s house which he/she does not need and probably snooze over time to time. But it’s time to wake up and donate those precious books to someone who needs them more than we can ever realise.