Pratham Books Champion : Sandip Kotecha

For International Literacy Day (8th September), we had a dream - we wished that 100 people would volunteer to conduct storytelling sessions across the country. We ended up finding more than 250 champions to conduct storytelling sessions across the country. We will be sharing the stories of all our champions through our blog..

This story was sent by Sandip Kotecha. Sandip is an Engineer by profession and working with Essar Group at its Hazira Plant. A lover of books and nature, he enjoys being with children for their curiosity and enthusiasm. He loves Divaswapna By Gijubhai Badheka (Gujarati book, translated in Hindi and English also) and Totto Chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Japanese book translated in many languages including English, Hindi, Gujarati) and wants every teacher and parents to read it. Follow @snkotecha on Twitter.

Session conducted in Hazira (a village near Surat) on 8th September, 2012

The event went very well. There were 73 students from Hazira Primary school. (Class 4,5,6). My wife Bansi and Son : Dev accompanied me.

As I told you the event was clubbed with Essar Foundation initiative – Where One of the books from Pratham book series was given to them 10 days before and a quiz session based on the same book with children. O

After introducing my self – I started with a game which they enjoyed and started talking with me. All of them enjoyed the Susheela’s Kolams – They shared the stories of various Rangoli (In Gujarat Rangolis are made during Diwali Festival) they make at home. After the story telling session - My son, Dev (6 years) also shared the story (with animal masks) and as I tweeted, the kids enjoyed his story more than mine… :)

Overall – a memorable experience and would love to do it again and again…! Thanks Pratham Books

Thank you Sandip (and your family) for spreading the joy of reading!

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

This blog contains stories sent in by all our champions. Browse through the blog for more stories. You can also go through the tags on the right side of the blog to find stories happening in your own city.

Note : If any of you want to be a Pratham Books Champion and join us on our journey of getting 'a book in every child's hand', write to us at web(at)prathambooks(dot)org.