We all fear something and the more we know about it, fear depletes. In this journey of knowing something books are the first choice as they are reliable and add informed knowhow to our understanding.
For a child, books are a medium to unfold an untold reality. It is a medium of exploring and imagining a new world. The forest libraries are one such medium for children to witness the world outside the forest. A way to figure what is all the noise about as they venture out as a community outside the forests. The picture books trigger curiosity and engage children in a conversation where a dialogue acts as a tool of educating them.
The second wave of covid-19 has tested the flexibility of forest libraries. The concept of roving made our initiative sustainable and its reach in these hard times has proved the effectiveness of libraries in such geographies. Story books as a tool of engagement link children to education.
Method
In a library session, youth performs storytelling with the children which is followed by practicing worksheets of language learning. In this exercise, storytelling engages children with the characters/events in the stories which is followed by worksheets of language learning. These worksheets are conceptualised keeping in mind that 8 out of 10 children are first generation learners. So, they are created using images of items from the immediate surroundings of children and words of their mother tongue. So, children find it easy to associate themselves with images in the worksheets which helps to bridge the gap of education. In this process, youth were the primary resource person who conducted sessions from time to time. Since they come from the community, it is easy for them to connect with children and deliver additional contextual knowledge to consolidate the learning of children.
Under the current circumstances, we aim to promote involvement from the community and engage more youth to maximise the reach of education. Since the affordability of modern gadgets is limited in the community, accessing education becomes hard for the children. Youth engagement promotes education in the community and awareness of literacy becomes localised.
Join us in our continuous hustle to make education accessible. Visit www.samanta.org.in
Guneet (Leads - Libraries & Content)