PUNE: Several students from Pune and surrounding areas gathered to collect books for children in 10 villages in Marathwada and Vidarbha on Sunday.

In a bid to promote reading and expose the curious minds of the rural students to the world, NGO Eklavya has been running its ‘One Village One Library’ initiative for the past three years. This year, 4,000 books have been collected along with some furniture for the libraries.

“We carry out this initiative once a year so that children in the remotest part of the State get access to reading material. We collected 4,000 books, which include children’s literature, English literature, books for competitive examinations, etc. Around 120 different individuals and organisations in Pune contributed by donating books and furniture like tables, chairs, etc,” said one of the coordinators in Pune and IT professional Vaibhav Valunj. The books were collected at the entrance of Fergusson College. 

Till now, the organisation has sent around 30,000 books to over 30 libraries in Vidarbha, Marathwada and Konkan areas.