Help me raise INR 20000 to build a WALL O BOOKS for needy kids who have no access to the beautiful world of books & educate them. Each such installation will impact 100 to 200 needy kids and change their life.

About me 

It was very rightfully said by Neil Gaiman that ,”A Book is a Dream that You Hold in Your Hands” .  

Hi ! I am Suvarna and I love reading books. Storybooks, comics, textbooks or any form of written document is always with me and I wonder at the injustice done to these children by depriving them of such a wonderful resource. I chose to do this campaign so that I can help many more children who do not have access to books. The libraries that will be established through this campaign will give millions of children access to books thereby good education and an opportunity to access the world. The fact that a contribution of just INR 5000/- can help establish a library and another INR 15,000/- ensure it's smooth running through the year, made me realise that I must do something to assist others. I strongly believe that we can help those who are needy and in the process , transform their lives. Please support my campaign and let’s bring the beautiful world of stories to these underprivileged kids.

Why & how Wall O Books came about?

Sanjukt, the Founder of The WALL O Books Project is an avid reader and has achieved much in life due to his passion for books. In his own words, Charles Dickens took him to London and then to Paris. The books gave him wings. Opened a window to the world. Gave him new ideas. The National Geographic took him to New Guinea. He wanted to go there. But soon after, he entered the portals of the Indian Institute of Technology and ironically stopped studying. But during those four (rather 5 years:) he read every issue of the National Geographic from 1947 to 1997 in the huge Central Library of IIT which had every book you can imagine, dusting away, in its long dark corridors. Life took over and he started doing more and more of other stuff. 

Then, one ordinary day, in 2014 he happened to walk up to a shelter for vulnerable children and wondered - what is it like growing up within these dark and grey walls? He met Saina, an eight year old, and asked her what does she want to be when she grows up. 

"I want to be a police officer. Criminals who commit crime, and crime is growing so fast in our world - those criminals, I want to catch them".


Saina wanted to spread her wings. 
But first there was a need to open a window for her to the world outside. 

Millions of vulnerable children in India are growing up in a narrow world. Where hope is not even a four letter word. School is a window. Or is it just a door? For these children continue to stay only in the street next door.  

The answer? 
Books. 

In spite of everything that can go wrong and stay wrong around these children, books can transcend all that, protect them and help them grow. 

For each of the 100 children covered by a WALL O BOOKS centre, the books they receive are often their first view of the world outside. All that is needed to form a WALL O BOOKS centre is just a wall, they put together a simple, cool and innovative bookshelf made out of an empty gunny bag on it, that can hold 100's of books. 

Pic : This is how a WALL O BOOKS installation will look.

The kids built this entirely with their own hands. They even elected a little librarian and got their first taste of democracy :) There are no restrictions to when and how many books they can read. They can carry the books home. The little librarian ensured that no book gets lost. Saina is now the elected librarian of her Wall O Books. 

Today, Wall O Books walks up to all kinds of places in India, collect 100 kids and help them build a hyper-cool Reading room of their own using just a wall - and so we call this a WALL O BOOKS. We equip it with a startup grant of 100 books ,a world map, a light bulb , a few more things and elect a little leader to run it. 

Yes! That is their logo, Sanjukt on the left and the Chief Executive Officer, Swastika, on the right. 

Tax benefits if you fund this campaign:

Wallobooks have applied for the 80G tax benefit status and expect to get it by June. We will issue receipts for all funding to this campaign. If you are willing to wait till June 2018 we will be able to also generate receipts with a 80G Tax benefit.

A book can break a wall.
Make a window to the world outside.

The WALLOBOOKS Project has now become a powerful Not for Profit movement of hope to give every vulnerable child in India direct access to a simple library+laboratory.  Designed, built and managed by children living and growing up in the bottom of the pyramid communities, 170 centres so far in 4 states across India give 50000+ children an amazing new way to discover, learn & have fun. And an opportunity to shape their own future. 

The WALL O BOOKS vision

The vision is to build 10,000 WALLOBOOKS around India to ensure that no child at the bottom of the pyramid is left behind. In 2018 we are on a mission to build 100 WALLOBOOKS in each state of India. 

2900 are required in total to cover 1M children. 170 are done and we have just 2730 more to go.

How your contribution will be used?
HOW ARE THESE CENTRES BUILT ?

• Your contribution will be used to build a WALL O BOOKS in Bangalore or in surrounding areas. There is a due diligence process involved in identifying and selecting locations. This is effort and cost intensive. We will undertake this effort only after the funding is committed. This takes a month to complete. Map of centers will be available thereafter. 
• Utilisation of Funds: Each Center costs INR 5000 to build and INR 15000 to run for a year. During the year, there are multiple interventions in each center, four major ones -  
  • The Identity Project: Kids are told the meanings of their name in a workshop designed to help them get a better sense of their identity. As all these children come from vulnerable social and economic backgrounds, this intervention is a simple and powerful way to help them become more confident of who they are.
  • The Democracy Project: In each WALL O BOOKS center, the children elect a little leader.  This is a full fledged election, where the children nominate themselves, make election speeches, ballot cast and an acceptance speech made by the elected leader. In our country, democracy is constantly under attack and this way, we are helping thousands of vulnerable children get their first taste of what it means to have a free and fair election. When they grow up, they will be amazing citizens.
  • The HopeLETS Program:  This is a hypercool intervention where 2 kids are connected to each other through postcards and an interesting curriculum, one postcard every month. We are a country of diversity and this program is designed to help children discover each other across the walls that divide us and thereby, bring them together.     
  • FlipLAB: This is a hyper innovative curriculum to transmit life kills to the parents of the kids we serve. This curriculum is currently under development. Imagine teaching the parents of these children how to read food expiry dates, understand their rights, know how to full up forms and hundreds of similar life skills that can change their lives. The WALL O BOOKS team trains the teachers, who in turn uses the FlipLAB interactive curriculum to inform the children and through them, educate their parents.

• While each center is started with a grant of 100 books, the modular design of WALL O BOOKS allows us to add more books. Donors can continue to associate with us to collect books and donate them throughout the year. The Centers will be progressively equipped with a Laboratory. This is not covered in the current campaign.
• Yes, WALL O BOOKS is built on a wall. We identify locations managed by other organizations who look after the other needs of these kids. Our model is to plug into their walls :) Space involved will always vary. There are 170 Centers, heavily documented.
• On an average our direct target is 100 children per center. We also work with the centers to open up to the community in the surrounding area. This when in place could serve more children up to 300.
• Even if 50 children access, the cost comes to about Rs. 33 per child per month. So basically for the cost of one book, each child accesses a huge, big library. So in a city like Kolkata, each kid in one of our 100 centers access a large distributed library of over 10,000 books. How? Books are also circulated between the centers, like expensive encyclopedias, National Geographic etc.

And now,
The WALL O BOOKS song