Pratham Books Champions : Joysree Das and Student Volunteers of Sree Agrasen Mahavidyalay

Joysree Das sends us an inspiring story of how she trained her students to conduct storytelling sessions in schools.

Session conducted on : September
Number of kids : approximately 20 at each session = 100 kids approximately
Number of sessions : 5 (2 volunteers at each session)
Language the session was conducted in : English, Bengali, Hindi, and Surjapuri

About why she trained her students, Joysree writes...

I had done a survey of the free primary schools of the Goalpokhar block of Uttar Dinajpur district under a project of the Sarva Shikhsa Mission,Uttar Dinajpur in 2010.Then I had seen the plight of the under privileged children studying in these schools in the remote areas of a backward district. They had never touched a story book. So I send my students with a missionary zeal to reach out to these children. I am also thinking that this can be converted into a N.S.S.(National Social Service Scheme) project in our college.

Student volunteers

About the sessions

The student volunteers (10 students) of Sree Agrasen College in Dalkhola, which is a small town in the district of Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, who were trained in storytelling, went to the free primary schools, to read out stories to the children studying there. The sessions were held at Bhusamani, Mithapur, Silanga, Lahasar and Farsara villages.

The books they read out were all picture and story books published by Pratham Books- were The Annual Haircut day, The Cat in the Ghat, My Two Great Grandmothers, We call her Ba,The Missing bat, Clever Rabbit stole the Fire, and of course Takloo the Salt seller. 

As the feedback came from the students, it was crystal clear that the children were delighted with the stories and story books, and what’s more is that they learned new words, their meaning and pronunciation very quickly. Such books can be very effective tools in teaching and learning a language.

**********

Thank you Joysree Das and the students volunteers of Sree Agrasen Mahavidyalay for spreading the joy of reading !

In its third edition of the 'One Day - One Story' campaign, Pratham Books was joined by 1300+ storytellers who conducted 1500+ storytelling sessions. More than a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'!

What started as a small step by Pratham Books to spread the joy of reading has become a movement. In 2012, Pratham Books initiated the One Day-One Story initiative on the occasion of International Literacy Day . We will be sharing the stories of all our volunteer storytellers (Pratham Books Champions) through our blog.

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations held in 2014.

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 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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Pratham Books Champion : PeaceWorks

Megha Malhotra from PeaceWorks sent us the following note and pictures. PeaceWorks—An initiative of The Seagull Foundation for the Arts is a project that works through arts and culture, with young minds, to foster a spirit of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect across differences, and equality thus catalysing social change. For nearly a decade now, PeaceWorks has worked with scores of students and teachers, in India and across the border with schools in Pakistan, and lately in Kashmir. With children from privileged backgrounds and with street and slum children—often designing projects that bring the two together and thereby developing sensitivities and creating a platform that facilitates 'learning to live with difference'.

We had wonderful sessions at three of our centres where we conduct weekly storytelling sessions. This is part of our Share Stories Open Minds project in association with Kolkata Police. On the 7th our volunteers encouraged the children to read. We reached almost a hundred children. Attached please find pictures and videos of sessions at two of the centers—Vikramgarh High School and Chetla Home Calcutta.

Thank you PeaceWorks for spreading the joy of reading!

 **********

This International Literacy Day, Pratham Books has taken a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

What started as a small step by Pratham Books to spread the joy of reading has become a movement. Last year Pratham Books initiated the One Day-One Story initiative on the occasion of International Literacy Day and we conducted over 250 storytelling sessions. This year we are delighted that over a 1000 sessions are happening across the length and breadth of the country.We will be sharing the stories of all our champions through our blog.

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.

Pratham Books Champion : Ranjani Jagannathan

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 to us by Ranjani Jagannathan.

Storytelling session which we didn’t allow to be a washout!

It started with the clouds going all gloomy in the afternoon. And then Kolkata is already jinxed this season with the Dengue epidemic, a fellow champion called to say she had to rush to the hospital, two other moms called to cancel out with their children because they were stuck elsewhere because of the rains!

My own kids went to sleep an hour and a half earlier and had absolutely no enthusiasm to get out their warm comforters in the pouring rain to go to the venue, the apartment office room which could accommodate about 15 people comfortably and if more came I had made provisions to spill over into the garage right outside. However, only 10 kids including 2 of my own made it and boy! While I was disappointed at the small numbers , it soon turned to joy when I saw how eager these kids were not only to listen to the story but to read a story each of their own. The storytelling session soon turned into one where each kid wanted to read some the two pager Rs.2 /- books which I must say is a great brainwave of Pratham books while others the longer books like “Why don’t things fall up?”

If you are wondering where these additional books came from, I am already a big fan of these books since I first spotted them at a book fair last year for my five and seven year olds its a literal treasury which they can dig and explore and always come out winners!

Today I saw the same pleasure mirrored in the children that came and I wished more had been able to attend had the weather not played spoilsport, but I am sure there is another day and another session, I am sure going to look forward to it! Thank you Pratham books.

 

Thank you Ranjani 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.

Pratham Books Champions : Aanandika Sood

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.

Aanandika Sood sent us this story. Aanandika Sood aspires to be the rolling stone that gathers a lot of moss. After 8 years of writing copies and columns, editing and scripting stories and honing her PR skills, she is now playing the part of a freelance writer and a momee. She lives in Kolkata, blogs at aanandika.blogspot.in and writes on anything that stimulates her mind and merits comment.

Storytelling session held in Kolkata, 8th September 2012

It was a fine evening when a green package arrived at my door step. I was super excited as I tore it open and found a treasure inside. The treasure- the books – were sent by the Bangalore based publishers Pratham Books who were encouraging people to conduct a story telling programme on the World Literacy Day. And with just that much I became a Pratham Books’ Champions.

The book reading was to be conducted on September 8 which fell on a Saturday. I had decided to conduct the story telling session at my house and had duly called up all the mommies around me, who I knew would be and should be excited by the prospect of a story session. 

Though the day had dawned bright and gay, by the time evening arrived, the rain gods seemed a wee bit unhappy. That, however, did not dampen the enthusiasm that had built inside the Sood household with the husband helping with shifting the furniture to make ample room for jumpy kids and Netra donning her brand new lehenga to essay the role of Susheela, the protagonist of the book- Susheela’s Kolams.

Susheela’s Kolams a vibrantly illustrated small book had arrived as part of the treasure earlier. This book was being read across the country by many other Pratham Books’ Champions in numerous events being held the same day.

Susheela learnt to draw kolams from her mother and loved to draw them everywhere. So great was her love for kolams and so great her talent that she was even approached by the Air Force whom she told ‘how to dip, dive and turn their planes...’

On the appointed hour, our guests began to arrive, unfazed by the shower, thunder and lightning. We started our session at 5.30 PM. I read out the story to them. There were enthusiastic oohs and aahs as I used a puppet to play Susheela and other things like a kite at the appropriate moment. The session was interspersed with a lot of interactive questions answers like what material was Susheela using to make her kolams. What else could be used? If they had assisted their mommies ever in making kolams or something similar? This was fun and the kids came up with well-thought out answers. They could easily draw a parallel between Suseela’s kolams and rangolis that were made with gulal on various festive occasions and to mark celebrations.

The story telling session was followed by a game of chits in which each child was asked to draw a chit and then perform the activity written therein. The chits had a name of a colour and a number written on them. This meant that you had to name the number of things with that particular colour. Others included telling a song or a rhyme on colours which had them all singing the poem on traffic lights. 

Next came the most interesting part, where my champion Shikha treated us all for our hard work with delicious cake, savouries and a sumptuous chowmein. 

By the end of the session Shikha aunty and Susheela had won many ardent fans.

Thank you Aanandika 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.

Pratham Books Champion : Sushmita Sengupta

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 Sushmita Sengupta.

Storytelling session conducted on 8th September 2012

I heard of Pratham Books, for the first time, from a friend; so when I saw this event being organised I wanted to be a Champion. I am already running my own story-sessions with neighborhood kids, in my little home-library. This idea of hundreds of sessions across the country seemed like playing an instrument in an orchestra. Like taking a challenge heads on - to turn India into a 100% literate country soon. 

The children in my session came from lower-middle class families, and are all first generation English speaking kids. But the reading session became a very interactive event. ‘Pongal’ was a new word to my kids- naturally a discussion ensued and the children spoke of parallel celebrations from Bihar and Bengal. ‘Kolam’ too is a new word, but that posed little difficulty, for the wonderfully illustrated book made it obvious. The children chimed in ‘Rangoli’ and ‘Alpana’ in unison. The older kids (boys) got excited in suggesting that they too could paint ‘Kolam’ on trains. But the most interesting part was the Air Force’s tricks. All the children seemed keen to visualize the Kolams made by the Air Force pilots! 

The children wanted more of the stories, so we read some more, after we finished ‘Susheela’s Kolam’. They planned an evening of drawing Kolams on kites, for Vishwakarma Puja. They also promised to think over and come back to me with suggestions about where else Susheela could draw more Kolams!

Thank you Sushmita 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.