Local NGO to expand mobile library services to schools in impoverished suburbs. PHOTO: EXPRESS
To be executed through the non-governmental organisation Bright Star, two mobile libraries would be set up to reach out to underprivileged children and further expand the areas the NGO services.
An agreement for this was signed on Wednesday between the Japanese Ambassador Takashi Kurai and
Bright Star’s Chairman Saeed Malik while Indus Motors Company Limited Vice Chairman Toshiya Azuma witnessed the ceremony.
Bright Star was founded in 2009 and started mobile library operations in 2011 for schools which had no library facilities of their own. Currently the serves around 20 schools where such facilities were previously neglected.
Considering the positive impacts of these libraries, the increasing demand coming directly from local communities, and also to enhance reading and learning skills among more children of marginalised households, the Japanese government decided to provide the grant under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) scheme to reach out to more underprivileged children and further expand the areas Bright Star’s Mobile Library (BSML) would service.
Under the programme, two vehicles - arranged by Indus Motors Company under the first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) component of GGP scheme for this year - will be converted into mobile libraries.
Each library would be stocked with 850 books in Urdu and English. Further, they would be equipped with and electronic media items such as projectors and DVD players. Moreover, these vehicles will be provided free maintenance by Indus Motors for a specified time.
Apart from offering books the libraries would also provide educational activities for children such as storytelling for younger students as well as guiding and self-learning book-reading sessions in each school every week.
At the ceremony, Japanese Ambassador Kurai noted how greatly better-quality and easily accessible facilities of education contribute to strengthening the foundation of long-term development for both individuals as well as communities of the country.
He further assured the continuous support of Japanese government to Pakistani communities and hoped that the projects signed today would further strengthen friendly relations between the two countries.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 9th, 2017.
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