Kyra’s Book Bank

Kyra is a teenage girl in Mumbai who really cares a lot about those who are not as fortunate as her. A few years ago she started collection books from friends & family and passing them on to kids in the slums of Mumbai.

I’ve met her a few months ago in Mumbai and we had a beautiful conversation, she, her mother and me. I was deeply impressed by her. The last few months Kyra was collecting books for Janwaar. It was pure coincidence that I was in Mumbai when I received her email that she would like to ship the books. So happily I offered to take them with me on my train back to Janwaar. And this is what we did.

Three young men came to the railway station and put the boxes at my seat … The boxes were professionally packed labled. Children books 0-5 years, 8-10 years and so on! It was a pleasure to see!

Now we have to make space in the Villa so that we can unpack the boxes.

Thank you Kyra! Thank you Kyra’s Book Bank!

Update: A few days later in Janwaar.

I went with two of the Janwaar kids, Keshuram and Ramkesh, to Panna to buy book shelves. It turned out that this wasn’t an easy endevour. Most of the shops we went, didn’t even know what a book shelf meant 🙁 Actually not at all surprising! In each Panna house I’ve been so far I never ever saw any books!

Finally we were lucky and found some. They are rather meant for a kitchen, but they do serve our purpose 🙂 It was fun to unpack the boxes with the kids and sort the books. Let’s see what the kids make out of it! Ajeet, who participates in our Open School Project in Delhi took the lead and found the right place for the books in the Villa and sorted them.

Kyra also sent nice small notebooks. There are enough of them to make them personal items. So every little kid who is coming for our morning sessions to Villa Janwaar will have her/his own personal notebook – nice!