Lumino
A Reading Journey To Remember
So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well: They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky." -William James
Social equality, especially with regards to literacy, is massively behind where it should be. More than 287 million people in our country live today without ever being able to realize the magic of serif strokes on fading paper. And this enormous number is not going to shrink unless real measures are taken by society - and the first step starts with you.
Reading is not just a term we want to correlate to literacy. The unfortunate status quo of today is that fewer and fewer children from every stratum of society have access to books or read for leisure. Despite numerous technological advancements, we believe that there is nothing that can ever replace reading, ‘just for the fun of it’. It is disappointing that even children in an environment with access to books lined up and down shelves decide to permanently hand these pages to glass bookcases, never to be touched again. More than anything else, we felt an overwhelming sense of pity when we realized what these children are missing.
Countless children are either unable to caress the luring pages of a storybook or understand how much awaits them inside these pages. A lack of financial stability in a household should by no means restrict a child’s ability to simply pick up a book and read.
We want to share our love of reading with underprivileged children. We want to not only bring them to books, but also show them how much they can get out of reading. We don’t simply want to give these children books; we want to change their perception of reading and get them addicted to the habit of reading.
The first step is organizing a simple book drive. We organise these drives in both Bangalore and Hyderabad to collect books and donations in larger, more privileged communities.
With the books we collect, we will host an event we like to call a ‘readathon’ in two large communities in two different cities. The way we have imagined this to work is that we invite children and young adults to take two to three hours out of their day to sit down with a book and simply read.
Other reading sessions will also be hosted in orphanages, villages, and other locations where underprivileged children are unable to read books for leisure. After hosting these sessions, we will donate the books to the same children.
After hosting at least two readathons in each city, hope to have gathered enough supporters of our cause to hold a full-fledged event in each community which will include activities, guest speakers, books, and victuals. People of all ages may attend, at a minimal cost, and support our vision.
Finally, using the proceeds from the fest, as well as the books collected during the drive, we will visit government schools, orphanages and villages again and distribute the resources collected equally, while also spending time with the children to engage them in activities and stories. This way, we hope to make this an annual affair so the legacy can grow and flourish as time goes by.
In a few short months, Lumino has conducted multiple book drives, collecting and donating over 1400 books! Follow our social media pages for new updates, or check out our blog to see our progress from the start!