Pratham Book's library-in-a-classroom now in Dahanu

Vidya and Rati do a book-duet reading at Mussalpada school .

On 23 December 2013, Mitra Foundation opened two new libraries for Adivasi students of Amchi Shalas of Mussalpada and Ambatpada hamlets in  Waki village of Dahanu Taluka in Maharashtra.

Mitra Foundation was  1 of the 22 organisations that received 3 sets of  'Library-in-a-classroom' a mobile collection of 125 Marathi  books for 4-6 years olds, as a grant from Pratham Books..

Smt. Nanda Dhak, the headmistress of the Musalpada Amchi Shala and her 40 students and two teachers  welcomed the Mitra team with loud applause and heartily shouted good morning greetings.

After brief introduction by Seema , Mitra Foundation's library coordinator, Maya Vanbaugh (10) and Sita (5) our young volunteers for the day, presented the 'library in a classroom' to the students. After receiving the books, Sunita and Sunil  read two books from the book collection followed by a  Seema's story reading session. All the children listened to the readings with great interest. But it was Sita who stole the show with the performance of her two delightful renditions of her 'Masala' and 'Phool' songs,  which the students enjoyed so much that they made her sing it again and joined the chorus.

Neelam Patil and her students pose with Pratham library in a classroom kit at Ambatpada

Later at Ambatpada Amchi Shala, Smt. Neelam Patil and her brood of 20 students received the books with great excitement and a celebratory song. We were informed by Smt. Patil that this is the first time the school has received books of any kind and was looking forward to expanding the library.

Mitras have made a commitment at both the schools that it will regularly monitor the progress of the reading habits of students and in 2014 increase the number of books in both the libraries.