The Ripple Effect

Do you believe in the power of involvement? Yes, I am seriously asking. Do you?

Swastika Gurung
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

When I left Kurseong and came down to Kolkata for the first time, I never had any idea about it!

Most of you know, I run WALLOBOOKS. Yes, it’s a cost effective library meant for underprivileged kids who sometimes have no better access to the world outside. Not a great feat to boast about, really (I admit with all humility)!

At times, our proposals have been turned down by Foundations because we are ‘merely’ building libraries. As the notion goes, we visit government-aided / NGO run schools and distribute hundreds of copies of story books to those poor kids who could never read them! Unfortunately, this is also true, most of the times. And still, we aim to build 100 WALLOBOOKS centres in each state — 2900 Centres covering 1 million children in the next two years. Guess, why???

I have seen these kids building their libraries — a space to call their own and to remind them for the rest of their lives that the power to create lies with them. You can witness the magic here:

Having been associated with these kids for more than three years, I have seen this involvement changing something in them. And that’s why we call it a simple movement of hope :)

All the stories of WALLOBOOKS are stories of involvement.

164 Centers. 49000 children. Close to 300 Teachers. Hundreds of WOB Heroes and people who donated books. Thousands of friends on Facebook. The list goes on.

I will go to these stories one by one as I strongly feel they deserve to be told. Till then, a shoutout to our #WOBHeroes — Oyi Taki and Mukesh Bakkoori who helped us reach the children in states as far as Arunachal Pradesh and Telengana respectively.

A sincere involvement can really change lives. This is what happened to me and the thousands of children around me. If you don’t believe it, just write to me ;) I can’t fix things for you, but can get you involved in what I am doing. That’s fun, right?

Written together with Sayanti Mitra.

)

Swastika Gurung

Written by

Mountain Girl| Dreamer| Cofounder | CEO — Wall O Books www.wallobooks.org

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade