“A Library For All”: Growing Up In A Faraway Land
It is hot and stuffy outside, and most locals are taking their afternoon naps. Inside a community library at Sheikh Sarai in New Delhi however, the world is wide awake.
This motley bunch is not the usual lot that fills the small library rooms on a working week. They look around curiously, navigating new vocabularies and unfamiliar faces. They browse through rows of books and converse amidst themselves in their mother tongues. Once a week, under the initiative of the UNHCR-BOSCO Refugee Assistance Programme, around fifty Afghan children, aged between six and thirteen, visit the library as members. Entirely volunteer-driven, The Community Library Project (TCLP) passionately advocates reading for pleasure and learning as it upholds everyone’s right to access good quality books.
An estimated...