Mark Twain rightly said, ‘A man who doesn’t read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.’ However, what if one has the desire to read but he/she does not have the access to books or libraries. Such is the scenario in many places of Nepal. There is this huge mountain of inaccessibility between the people and their desire to read. Local newspapers are the most they get to read and the access to good books is a far-fetched dream in such places.

Even in Aapghari, Kavre where we have been running SDPRP to ensure children’s access to quality education, availability of most basic course books is a luxury. The concept of library with quality and updated course and reference books, fictions, non-fictions etc. could only be dreamt of a few years back until Aarambha Foundation stepped in and initiated the ‘Rural Library Project’ in November 2018. Aarambha Foundation along with AFn Kavre successfully set up “Aarambha-Aashako Pustakalaya” at Shree Bhuwaneswori Basic School, Aapghari, Kavre in support of Hope4Smile and MZ & KZ Shah Foundation. Since then, the school along with our fellows have been regulating the library, facilitating regular library classes and motivating the students to explore and broaden the horizon of their knowledge. There is also an e-corner in the library with five iPads donated by Mr. Ajay Shah for audiovisual learning. Students witness the first ever daily national newspaper in the school.

Setting up a library was not easy and we could not have done it alone. We still need collaborative hands to upgrade it time and again.