For a while I’ve been thinking how great it would be if there was a library at Darbari Waldorf School. The school children don’t have books at home as many of their parents can’t read. So the idea of reading for pleasure or to find out about the world is completely new to them.
Recently the teachers decided to turn the old kitchen/bedroom into a storeroom for school materials, and it seemed like a chance to set up a library at last. I started by asking my family and friends in England for any used children’s books they might be happy to donate and I was very touched at the collection of wonderful used and new storybooks that they kindly gave me. I also asked the publishers ‘Ladybird’, who are one of the UK’s biggest children’s publishers, and to my amazement they posted me a huge selection of books, including complete sets of graded reading books! It was lucky that I was travelling to India with a group of students from Avignon, who were able to help me carry them all! To build up a library of Hindi books, too, the Avignon students donated 50 euros, which enabled us to order more than 50 very nice new books in Hindi.
The children from Darbari were very curious to see the new books. Once we had covered and sorted them, and set them out on the shelves, they rushed to choose a book, poring over the pictures and - for the older ones – haltingly reading the stories. In the evenings, the children who sleep at the school would all take turns to read out loud and I was especially happy, after a few days, to come across one of the girls from class 8 reading to the younger children, with the little ones huddled around her, laughing and loving the story ...