Swathi Sriram has come all the way from New Jersey to Vijayawada as part of a mission — to establish small libraries which she calls ‘Intellect Centres’ in government-run schools in the rural pockets of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
She has set up these centres in 30 schools — 19 in Andhra Pradesh, in the districts of Krishna, East and West Godavari, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam; and 11 in Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts of Telangana.
She distributed a set of 128 books in each of the 30 schools, formed student committees comprising two boys and two girls and gave them the roles of curator, educator, publicist and secretary.
Besides conducting regular events such as debates, essay writing and other creative activities on contemporary issues, the student leaders will try and multiply the number of books through different innovative activities they are trained in. “The libraries would be run by student leaders, who will be monitored by a teacher appointed for the purpose,” she explains.
The books are sponsored by her friends and well-wishers in New Jersey. “Raising funds for a good cause like this one is not really difficult there. But I am more concerned about effective functioning of these centres,” she says.
Nearly 15 more schools have approached Ms. Sriram seeking similar facility. “I have a set of local volunteers who are willing to run these centres. We live in a competitive world. I have notices that students in Government-run and ashram schools are very intelligent. All they need is a gentle push.”
“Social entrepreneur Pradeep Lokhande who has established 3,000-odd libraries in rural parts of Maharashtra is my inspiration. When I read about his good work, I could not stop myself from calling him and sharing my idea which was on similar lines. He suggested that instead of providing infrastructure for a library, I should focus only on distribution of books. It was then that the idea of Intellect Centres was born,” she told The Hindu.
“Reading course books is not enough. To achieve leadership qualities, they should look beyond the books prescribed in their curriculum. After a thorough home-work and with the encouragement of my spouse who is an IT professional, I selected a set of books categorised in two modules — education and leadership. My aim is to get them interested in books that will stoke intellectual growth.
For instance, my collection includes subjects like DNA, solar energy, theory of evolution, photosynthesis and autobiographies.
Eager to rope in more schools in her programme, Ms. Sriram says it gives her a sense of gratification.
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