Essar Foundation has identified education as one of its main areas of community development activity. Taking direction from this, the Foundation organized a Pledge-a-Book drive at Vadinar, between February 23-26, 2012, with the aim of building a collection of books to open a community library for children.
The drive was held concurrently with an exhibition of children's
books organized by the Foundation in association with a leading Indian regional
languages children's book publisher. The book fair was arranged simultaneously
at various locations in Vadinar, such as Essar House, the Essar Power office, Nalanda
Centre and Nand Niketan Township.
Prior to the launch, the Foundation team conducted road shows to explain how the dismally poor reading and learning levels of the children in the schools we support, were resulting in drop-outs, and urged the voluntary participation of Essarites to make the drive a success.
Visitors to the fair who wished to contribute to the drive could purchase the books and drop them into a collection box at each location. Almost all the visitors, it seems, did exactly that, and by the end of the four-day event, we had a grand collection of around 1,700 books. This collection will be the base for a lending library that the Foundation is setting up for children of the local communities around the Essar Vadinar facility. Essarites' contribution will give these children exposure to alternative reading material, while improving their learning levels and comprehension.
The Foundation also gifted sets of books to the housekeeping staff at the Vadinar complex for their children.
