What is the campaign about (in comics)
Light of Hope - a Bangladesh-based non-profit started a crowd-supported project called 'The Reader' (in Bengali 'Porua') to establish small libraries in rural underprivileged primary schools. The brochure of the project best explained what the project is all about and also a reminder of our own childhood when we got the chance to read comics.
![]()
As the comics is in Bengali, the translated versions are provided as text for your understanding.
পড়ুয়া (The Reader), an initiative by Light of Hope, aims to increase
children’s creativity and power of imagination by giving access to story,
science and other non-academic books at the underprivileged primary schools in
Bangladesh.
![]()
We are collecting old story books by arranging campaigns at the college and universities in the cities. We are also collecting story books and children magazine from various development organizations. Through social media we are also collecting story books from individual.
![]()
All the collected books come to our storage where we sort out the books according to age, fixing torn books and create a database of book donors so that we can keep a track where these books are going.
![]()
We then select individual primary schools, discuss with them about the operation and maintenance of the library. We prioritize the rural primary schools where most of the children are from underprivileged family background.
![]()
A teacher from the school or an adolescent from the community takes the charge of the library who issues the books to the children and maintain the library management.
![]()
The children get the opportunity to read story books that they never imagined they would get a chance. Some of them dream to become a writer, some of them want to become a scientist... these books now will shape their imagination.
![]()
Picture: 'Porua' (The Reader) brochure
What We Did So Far?
We are already running the campaign on Facebook and asking people to donate their old story books. We ran a 2 day campaign at American International University Bangladesh (AIUB). We contacted various organizations and corporate to run book collection campaign among their staff. Till date we collected more than 5056 story books and children magazine.
Library established: 7
Book and magazines collected/donated: 5056
Number of students having access to story books: 462
You can join our Facebook event page here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/741646552598617/
![]()
Picture: Children Magazine received from BRAC. Besides we also collected story books from UNICEF Bangladesh, Room to Read etc.
![]()
Picture: 'The Reader' campaign in Banglalink Head Office - a major telecom company in Bangladesh
![]()
Picture: The members of Light of Hope is sorting the story books according to age.
Great news is we already established three libraries in three rural primary schools. The children of these schools (a little over 300) are having access to the story books for the first time of their life and they are amazingly happy about it.
![]()
Picture: 'Porua' library at Porosmoni School in Kisorganj district, Bangladesh
![]()
Picture: Children are issuing story books from the library
Just look at the happy faces.... most of them have seen a story book for the first time in their life. The adolescent girl - Nirjana is the librarian of this library. She is studying in Standard 10 at the village and volunteering as the local Guardian for the library.
Our Target
Our initial target is to collect 100,000 books and build 500 libraries all over the country within next 5 years.
- Collection of 100,000 story books and children magazine
- Establish 500 libraries at 500 rural primary schools
- About 50,000 students will have access to story books every year
How your money will be spent?
The budget will be used to run the book collection campaigns at the colleges and universities, buying library shelves, human resource cost, book transportation, communication materials like brochure, sticker etc. We will not use the money to buy story books as they will be mostly collected or will be funded through our internal social media campaigning.
With this amount we will be able to establish 300 small libraries in rural primary schools of Bangladesh.
How we will reach our target?
We already prepared a list of 100 universities and colleges at Dhaka - the capital of Bangladesh and dedicated our representatives and volunteers to run the book collection campaigns. In our group, we have faculty and students as our members to run these campaigns.
We are contacting the corporate, book publishers and development organizations to donate the story books. Interested schools are contacting us for the library and we are keeping their database. After careful verification we will build libraries at those schools.
Other Ways You Can Help
We understand that not everyone can't contribute with donation. But while you can't donate, but some of your friends may can. So, please don't hold yourself. If you like our work then share the link with your friends via your social media.
Remember, sharing is caring.
