| Khuli Kitaab - Making reading fun |
 "There is not a single thing that one can teach a child that will have such prevailing value as to teach a child how to read."Literacy is a basic human right along with the right to adequate food, health care, and housing. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched the United Nations Literacy Deacde (2003-2012) to increase literacy levels and empower all people everywhere and also launched the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) in 2005 as a framework for achieving the Decade’s goals. The ‘Khuli Kitaab’ Campaign aims at promoting literacy through the joy of reading books. The main goal is to create a curiosity in the minds of children for books and cultivate a habit to read. By creating an interest in children about reading, we want to encourage them to discover the newer sides of things and stimulate their thought process. What is the purpose of this campaign? Children in the communities where the Centre for Social Research (CSR) works come from underprivileged backgrounds and violence-affected families. Their desire to study is not always reciprocated in a positive way by their families due to various reasons. Burdened with domestic responsibilities or being subjected to a gender bias, can make them either leave their education haphazardly or lower their interest to study. The ‘Khuli Kitaab’ Campaign thus aspires to re-kindle the fire in these children by taking them closer to books and developing their reading faculties. Through the Campaign CSR will build a collection of books of all sorts that will be taken to the community children every time some visit to the community is organised. The book library will be maintained and updated by adding new books every year. How can you get involved? This campaign invites people to donate books (through the link provided at the bottom) or donors can also make monetary donations which will be used for the purchase of books. This campaign is open to all. You can kindly donate a book or several books. The following procedure needs to be undertaken:       How long will this campaign last? The ‘Khuli Kitaab’ Campaign will be a month long event and will last till the 8th of March, 2012. Individuals and organisations alike can help us in our endeavour to spread the benefits of inculcating reading habits in children. At the end of the campaign, details of the number of books purchased and all the information about the success of the Campaign will be made available on the CSR website. Regular updates will also be made available on www.csrindia.org "Learning gives creativity. Creativity leads to thinking. Thinking provides knowledge. Knowledge makes you great." – Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India |