New Delhi: A 17-year-old student has been facilitating the creation of libraries and donation of books in Delhi-NCR for underprivileged children.
A literature lover, Mehr Juneja collects books, segregates them on the basis of age groups and genre and sends to different NGOs for them to provide them to those who are not introduced to these books yet.
The class 12 student started the ‘New Chapter Society’ in November 2015. Through this, she helps create libraries according to the needs of the children engaged by different NGOs.
“I am inclined towards literature and it has shaped me to become the person I am today. But some are unfortunate to explore literature so I thought of undertaking this initiative some years ago,” said Ms Juneja.
She and others involved in the project, get books through door-to-door collection, organising fundraisers, collecting novels, textbooks, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and children books.
“A lot of people living in my colony, students from my school, and some alumni are involved in the project, which also helps spread awareness among people to donate books they have read or no longer need ,” she said.
For now, the group is working with NGOs like Sanshil Foundation, Vidya Foundation, Dreamgirl Foundation, and The Happy School.
“We have provided 1,500 books to Sanshil Foundation for their project Bagiya, helped Vidya Foundation build a library of 500 books, and also provided books on Hindi, English, and Mathematics, to Dreamgirl Foundation which focuses on education of elementary level school girls,” she said.
She added that they have a received a positive response from the NGOs and have seen children taking up reading enthusiastically. The team currently provides books to organisations in Delhi-NCR and wants to expand to other states soon.
