Hello everyone! How are you?

I have decided to share my memories! My memories are more and less the memories of my organization I have been working with from the past 13 years. My colleagues are somehow my second family and I see the growth of my office as the growth of my family. I am talking about Rural Education and Development (READ) India.

Now, with this very brief background let me share my memories with you. While I was interviewed by Dr Antonia Neubeur, the Founder of READ Global, settled in Nevada, USA, on phone, in May 2008. She asked me five questions. How many times I have travelled to rural areas? What experience I had talking to the rural communities? If I am not provided bed and bedsheets to sleep, and no proper washroom, can I stay under these tough conditions? Can I adjust to the food  available to eat, keeping in view the circumstances you are travelling to rural areas?

I was amazed by these questions. She is not concerned about my experience, specifically, planning, execution, monitoring, HR and fund raising, as the Country Director is supposed to know everything. She is concerned about my adjusting to the odd circumstances, specially leaving behind all comforts, facility and luxury back home!

I remember, I answered all the questions based on my experience and what I faced while travelling to rural areas and international travel I did during my earlier jobs with Population Foundation of India and OneWorld South Asia. She was so convinced with my answers and she said “You are the right choice”. Till date, after almost 13 years, I am the same and READ India has grown with the simple bottom-line – simplicity, humility, humanity, values to serve the humanity, transparency, respect for each other and expanding and nurturing the relationship beyond empowerment and employment.

I joined on the 1st June 2008 and the inauguration of The Oceanic Library was on 8th June 2008, just 7 days after my joining. I had to travel to the village Ullon, near Sundarbans, West Bengal. I met Dr Antonia Neubeur, Jessica, daughter of Omer Rains, the then the Chair of the Board, READ Global at the Kolkatta airport and the journey started in actual. Nahid Jubair, my colleague, whom I met before joining READ India, was in Ullon itself making arrangements for the stay in Ullon and launch of the first READ Community Library and Resource Centre.

While I reached Ullon, three hours drive from the Kolkatta airport, I was amazed by the warm welcome of the local village people, we walked 5 kms from the main road where The Oceanic Library is located to the VSSU Office, with local bands and communities. It was a fun though but my mind was reflecting on the answers I shared with Toni (Dr Antonia Neurbeur). She was so happy, I could see the level of happiness and satisfaction on her face. She was overwhelmed with the response, seeing the response of the community as per the Model she perceived while founding the READ Global. I still remember, being a strong cultural State, the whole night, the community had a cultural programme. Women dressed in traditional costumes, jewellery, make-up and children performed at their best, Jessica surrounded by the village girls, Toni surrounded by men and women, Library Management Committee members. Kapil Mondal Da, the short height man, with such a high vision and feel for his community, was having peace on his face, as the magic he did was unmeasurable, donating the land, by converting a hut into the library, a great visionary knew that this partnership will enable him to translate his dreams into action. I would also like to mention here that the model he created based on his dreams was shown by an architect in a model of the building covered with glass walls and was kept on the table at the Reception. He happily explained to all maybe more than 10 times with bright light in his eyes and confidence that he will be able to achieve all this not only for him but for his villagers. He used to say that my village community will not be able to go to America so he painted The Oceanic Library as a White House in the village, Statue of Liberty he created, India Gate and the artificial lake from VSSU to the Oceanic Library. The fish pond he made just behind the building of The Oceanic Library is just a peaceful lake where the visitors can sit for long hours and enjoy the beauty of three natural gifts by the GOD, Water, Trees and Sky, combination of blue water with green trees seeing their reflection in the water and above all the blue sky, birds around and a pin drop silence!

The community commitment was amazing, the joy was on the top of their minds, serving each other, made me think, we always write in our research papers, the differential economic levels, social differences and the variables in Literacy and Education. Here it was seen as “Everyone is ONE”, whether belong to Ullon, India or USA. International Diversity in Unity in Ullon!

There was no five-star hotel to live. VSSU guest house was the place, with one bed in one room, fan and water cooler. The Founder of READ Global and the invitees from Kolkata stayed in the guest house, breakfast, lunch, tea was all cooked in the kitchen of VSSU, fish was from the pond, cooked with the spices of the garden, rice from the fields, brinjals from the vegetable garden, what else one can share, expressing the simplicity of life.

I was encouraged by my visit and I was so confident that with these values, I can travel to the whole country in rural parts and make many friends, empower women, educate children, provide right values to the youth and make this country One with One Value System : What can I do for you?

READ Model is such a convincing model. Whosoever understands well and is interested to give back to the community to whom he belongs comes forward to adapt and partner with READ India.

Mr Asif Ali, the then Sarpanch of village Chainnsa visited my house with one of my connections in Gurgaon, listened carefully the long term strategy of engaging empowering educating and enhancing the skills of communities, committed the half of his homeland in his village to construct the Community Library and Resource Centre and committed himself to the cause. He agreed that this building will ever be used for the social work. In 2013, the READ Community Library and Resource Center was constructed. The dedication of the building in the name of Tamiko Mitsui by her daughter Kaori Zage, on behalf of Zage family based in Singapore and the funds were channelled through READ Global. She visited the READ Centre on the inauguration and when she saw the plaque of dedication, Community for whom this Community Library has been dedicated, she became emotional. (https://youtu.be/vJ6qIFbPM2k)

Tina Sciabica, the then Executive Director READ Global was also present with her and she was amazed to see the response. The library with new books, brand new computers, some community women saw the computers first time, early learning Center for children from 3 to 6 years, specially girls, sewing machines for women to learn the skill were a few of the initial attractions. Later, the students from Drishti School of Design, Bangalore did their internship and made women learn to enhance their traditional skills of making rugs and baskets. The journey continued and READ was able to bring multiple programmes of Skilling, Education, and empowering youth for employability. These programmes are continuing.

In 2013, when I was challenged by many that it would be tough for a woman with a poised personality to work in Mewat, I accepted this challenge silently because the condition of women and children made me to work with them. I would also like to acknowledge the constant support of Mr RS Dalal, ex Director General of Police, Haryana, whom we invited as the Chief Guest for inauguration. He is still at the back of READ India and provides guidance and support at every time.

We have worked in 15 or more of the surrounding villages around Chainnsa on Literacy and Education, digital literacy, women empowerment and Livelihood, youth empowerment etc. reaching 9600 unique people through various programmes. Many joined repeated programmes from time to time. READ India impacted the lives of around 25000 community people.
The dedicated team from READ India understood three aspects from me at the beginning to have patience perseverance and positive attitude to work with the community and today we see the results.

We always say Charity begins from home and the dedication and interest for self-empowerment and transforming others has been seen in Farzana Bano, the daughter of Mr Asif Ali, who is managing the Community Library and Resource Centre so well.

After Chainnsa, READ started working in Nuh, Tauru and other areas and we are proud to say that the positive attitude of learning and safety of the READ Team while travelling and staying in the villages have never been a challenge. It is a welcome opportunity to be engaged with people in Mewat and Palwal.

Geejgarh is a hamlet in Dausa district surrounded by 53 hamlets. Very interesting site to visit! It’s a valley surrounded by high mountain on one side.

I remember, my first visit to Geejgarh, very warm welcome by the villagers, having their roots in Geejgarh. Though their younger siblings have moved to Jaipur for jobs or business, women, old men, girls, and children are in the village, meaning having two establishments, one in Jaipur and another in Geejgarh.

I am not talking about the demographic or geographic information. We have a detailed report on the baseline, which speaks about the villages and its people in detail. I would like to share my experiences while setting up the Community Library and Resource Center and meeting with women and children. While the older men used to play cards on the roadsides, women wanted to learn alternative skills to earn revenue to manage two establishments. Children and youth wanted to read books, learn computers and prepare for their higher studies. While we constructed the beautiful building of lime and stone, it became a second home for women and children. The women panchayat leaders came forward to manage the READ Center in initial times. The skills women learnt were sewing and stitching, making pickles, pappad and other eatable items, the dynamism seen in the women and the inherent leadership was very visible.

I still remember the village stakeholders hosting the visits of national and international guests, by happily organizing the community feast with traditional Rajasthani food.

Women have strong negotiation skills which might have been with them due to hard life they experience on daily basis. The journey of the center was initiated with books, computers, Early Learning Centre when Walmart support came to construct the big hall on the first floor for women livelihood options. Chander Prakashji, the dynamic personality in the village took the whole responsibility with transparency and commitment, supported by a young boy Chand Khan. In the past 10 years, they trained around 10000 women, digital learning to around 2000 youth and many more local community benefitted from the READ Centre. Now from the past two years, women started enhancing their traditional skills on spinning and weaving. 20 women came forward for going out of the village to Jaipur for a month training on weaving and other options. Great transformation!

Two stories I can never forget. Kailashi, a girl affected with polio, used to walk for 45 minutes, wanted to learn stitching and sewing and reading. She got full support from the Center, and you can see her here.

Another story of Pintu, who had the wheelchair to come to the Centre but learnt sewing and stitching and later became the trainer and now running his boutique, earning around Rs. 10000/- per month.

The beautiful building was constructed with the support of an individual donor, Barbara Kipper, friend of the founder of READ Global. Here I would like to highlight the passion of Dr Antonia Neubaeur who raised the money from her friends and donated to construct the libraries in rural India. She might have visited Geejgarh 2-3 times.

The concept of “System Change” and the ‘People’s first’ is new for us but this was practiced knowingly or unknowingly by READ India in the past. Research on the one side, community on another side for deep dive discussions have shown the results. Their needs, their perceptions, their desires, their own management skills play a pivotal role in the development sector. We should ignite passion in them and see the miracles.

Hi everyone!

READ India provided me many opportunities to study different cultures, be with them and develop a common understanding for Education and Development of the local communities through Community Library and Resource Centers.

From West Bengal to Manipur, a big shift in culture, thus setting up the Community Library and Resource Center was not tough. In early 2009, my next journey was to Manipur, Imphal to do the stone laying of the Library to be constructed on the land donated by the Community in Sanghaiprou village of Imphal where I met the Kabui tribes. I was dressed in a simple traditional Indian salwar kurta. I went straight from the airport to the launch of the Community Library and Resource Center. I knew only one person, Mr Newmei, who was invited in September 2008 to sign the MoU with Carol Erickson, the then Executive Director of READ Global and Bob Renu, the then Asia Director. This was my first trip to Imphal. Language was the barrier though the warm welcome made me comfortable. I still remember the lunch hosted by one of the Library Management Committee member in her house. Being a vegetarian, it was tough for me to select the dishes as I knew the dry fish was part of every dish, whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian. I was amazed by the hospitality, the community lunch and it seemed that the whole village is one family. The traditional songs sung by the community women with their dance performances,
the beautiful women were dressed in their traditional attire and men too. People committed to the cause was visible. Education is the need along with the livelihood programmes. Weaving is the traditional craft which every woman knows and READ India was encouraged to support these women to enhance their traditional craft. I still remember, I was not able to stay at the hotel alone because of many barriers and above all, my fear. I remember, one of the girl from Sanghaiprau accompanied with me to the Hotel and stayed in my room. I made almost 10-12 visits after 2009 as I liked the community, the people, the library, the warmth. My colleague, Dr K K Mishra, Anthropologist joined me twice to study the culture, the people, the challenges in general and how READ could do better.

After making the Centre running in Sanghaiprou, the journey was continuing because READ Global used to bring many guests to Imphal as tourists and Sanghaiprou community always welcomed them with warmth, organising cultural programmes, traditional dances performed by men and women. I still remember one incidence when Dr Antonia Neubeaur was with her co-travellers, myself and one visitor from the travel business was with me. The welcome ceremony and inauguration of the building was organised. The elder community was made to sit in a row outside the building along with the guests. The plaque of the names of the local community contributions was displayed outside the gate of the building.

As per the traditional culture of the community, the young boys brought a big pig tied with ropes in a big basket, they cut the pig and brought the spine of the pig in a big plate in front of the eldest man and woman, they saw the spine and declared the auspicious occasion of inaugurating the building. The pig mutton was cooked in big pots and served with rice to the local community.

Later, to Metei Community, where I met with Mira Bai, the government servant holding a position in the State Department of Women and Child Welfare donated her building in Tubileima for the READ Center. The Community Library was established. It was a beautiful building and 100 women used to weave the cloth and were taking in the evening in a van donated by READ India to the Emma market and used to sell their cloth. This mechanism went very well and Mira Bai also supported financially to add more weaving looms to the programme.

Dwarka, the second biggest district of Asia, in New Delhi. is named after the legendary Dwarika Kingdom. Gurugram is very close. Dwarka Sector 21 metro station connects to the Connaught Place area in 10 minutes through Airport Express Line.

Dwarka has small villages around and one of the villages is Shahbad Mohammadpur, adjacent to the Sector 8 metro station. It is behind the International Indira Gandhi Airport of Delhi. In fact, many employees who serve at the airport for many supporting jobs stay in Shahbad Mohammadpur because of their convenience reaching to the airport at mid-night for shift duties.

While constructing the metro line and expansion of the boundary of the airport, land has been acquired by the villagers, as per the villagers of Shahbad Mohammadpur. One can experience the vibrations while in the village when the metro passes from the underground and can hear the loud voice of landing and taking off the multiple flights from the airport, day and night.

READ India opened a Community Library and Resource Center in Shahbad Mohammadpur in 2013. The house which was taken for opening the READ Library was from a family who stayed in this village after the 1947 Independence and the elders of the family moved from the village in 2013 to stay in Dwarka city which is less than 3 kms away from the village. Much of the families are migrated from various States of India as their husbands either work at the airport or nearby factory areas.

When the READ Community Library and Resource Center was opened, the response of the Community was overwhelming because the women, young girls, children and elders got an opportunity at their doorsteps to learn the skills or share their skills with others. Three generations visited the READ Centre either for training other women on crochet, embroidery or knitting, or learning the other skills like sewing and stitching, digital literacy, special courses like Health Workers, Technology Empowering Girls, Tally an accounting software, cookery classes, teachers training and so on. This READ Center not only created job opportunities for women at the Center but also helped many for getting suitable employability or initiating their own micro-enterprise.

READ India started a pre-school wherein the small children from 3 to 6 years, are studying on Montessori pattern of learning. These children are from the families who cannot afford the exorbitant fee in the private schools. During COVID 19, these children were approached by the local teachers with age-appropriate e-content on a regular basis.

This Center has been a hub of many programs, touching the lives of more than 10000 people in the past 8 years, and the visitors from India and abroad, Ministries, Corporates and other Civil Society Organizations, visited many a time to see how strong the community engagement turning to community transformation is happening. Such examples are reflected from various stories of change. The READ Center is still continuing and managed by the local women leaders who transformed their lives and are now mentoring others to bring change in themselves.

Savita is 36 years old woman who has her residence in Shahbad Mohammadpur village near Dwarka sector- 8 metro station. She is associated with the READ India center for the past 8 years. 

In 2013, she came to know about Read India from one of her neighbors. She always had this zeal of doing something by herself but found a lack of opportunities in her community. As she got to know about the opening of the center she visited there to know more about it and thought to give an interview for the stitching instructor position. She cleared that interview and started teaching Stitching and Sewing at the READ India center. To date, she has taught more than 2000 ladies from her village. Among these 2000, more than half are now financially independent. Alongside her trainings, she also started a production unit at the center where items like laptop bags, specks cover, files, folders, etc. were made. In the production unit, the beneficiaries were also involved from where they started earning money.

Ms. Savita never left her house before joining the READ India center, she uses to do all the household chores and stay indoors. She took all the capacity-building trainings organized by READ India like life skills, leadership, mental health, etc. Now, she feels so confident while speaking to people, while taking classes, and is managing the center well now. 

Ms. Savita made her identity in the village, earlier people used to recognize her by her spouse’s name but now community people address her as mam.

She is very proud of herself and her work and is thankful to READ India for helping her grow. 

Ms. Nagina Begum is from Agra and is residing in Delhi for the past 20 years. She is a mother of a college-going boy and a school-going girl. She is associated with READ India for 6 years now. Nagina joined READ India for learning Stitching and Sewing. She polished her skills of stitching and later joined the production unit, which helped her to earn and support her family.

Unfortunately, she lost her spouse during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As her husband was the mere source of income, Nagina’s family experienced serious economic crises after her husband’s death. During this difficult phase of her life, she started working at the READ India Dwarka center and worked hard to survive the basic expense.

After achieving mastery in Stitching and Sewing training and then being a part of the production unit, Nagina then enrolled for the Online Selling training with an intention of growing herself with the evolving times during COVID-19.

She is grateful to READ India for bringing such trainings that help community people to be independent.

Ms. Suman is 35 years old woman who lives in Shahabad Mohammadpur. One of her friends from the community told her about the READ India center a couple of years back. She started visiting the center. She started with her first training in Stitching and Sewing and felt that she achieved a lot in her life. As she brushed up her skills in stitching, she wanted to learn more and enhance herself like others in her class. After that, she got herself into the production unit at Dwarka center.

She is now more independent and is living her dreams. She is also supporting her children to do the things they want. From being a housewife to being an independent woman, her journey is inspiring. She actively participated in multiple trainings conducted by READ India and motivated others to join them, too. She is now financially supporting her husband.

She is also equipped in online selling and considering to running her own business.

Anjana is 26 years old. She was born just like any other normal child and went to school till 10th standard. After her 10th board exams, Anjana was down with a fever which affected her body and soon her legs got paralyzed. Due to this reason and other family issues, she could not continue with her studies. From 16 years of age till 25 years she did not step out of her house.

In one of the health camps organized by READ India, READ staff met her and enrolled her in TAG (tech age girls). She learned ICT skills, like how to book a cab, transfer money using apps, typing, working on excel sheets etc. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, READ India continued the trainings using the digital platform.

Anjana enrolled in another program of Social Media Marketing where she learned how to use social media in a useful and more productive way. She gained knowledge of how to earn money and fame through Facebook, YouTube, and other such apps. She is well aware of the different features of WhatsApp and how it can be used for business purposes. During her training in Social Media Marketing, she shared her thoughts on how she is planning to start her own business in which she can stitch clothes and at this time mask and sell them online. Her words are- “If she is not able to walk, it does not matter, she can still run her own enterprise and earn her livelihood, she is no more a burden on the family”.

Today Anjana is a confident girl and has gained the trust of her family. Now she has started going for therapy alone. She has started contributing in family decisions and her family respects her. They have accepted her again after a long time.