LEARNING: A NEVER-ENDING PROCESS

To mark Teacher's Day, which is celebrated on September 5, AMRITA GANERIWALLA, a class 12 student at Bombay International School, Mumbai, tells RobinAgers about her venture, Tales 'N' Treats, and the importance of holistic learning.

I began tutoring Divya, my domestic helper's daughter, in 2017. While interacting with her, I discovered that she did not read storybooks at all! This was partially because of the lack of availability of books and also because she preferred playing games or watching television to reading. As someone who grew up reading books, I felt strongly that all children should have access to books and wanted to nurture the habit of reading.

To do this, I decided to help schools and orphanages set up libraries. After weeks of calling schools and orphanages, I connected with Snehasadan. I visited the orphanage and connected with the children there. They told me that they didn't own a single book and weren't very interested in reading. I wanted to capitalise on the students' interest in playing and set up a book and toy library. The idea was that they would be surrounded by books while playing and may eventually pick up the books to read.

I ran a book and toy collection drive and was able to collect educational toys and storybooks suitable for all ages. When the children received the toys and books, they were very excited. One boy, who loved stories, showed me his secret stash of books in his drawer. He told me how excited he was to get a new collection of books to read. I wanted to continue helping students like him get access to books. Then, the pandemic hit! 

Teaching in the Time of Corona