A service to the society

As an initiative to help school students give back to society, Shaista Baljee of the Round Table Organisation recently conducted the ‘Ivy Aspire’ book donation campaign and mentored volunteers across various schools of the City.

The students, who took part in this campaign, belonged to schools like Mallya Aditi International School, TISB, Indus International School, Vidyashilp Academy, Canadian International School and NAFL. Although this was outside the purview of school activity, the students were still extremely enthusiastic and worked extra hard on this community development activity.

“Students want to make a positive impact and in this small way, they can make a big difference to the community they live in. This is an initiative which is very do-able because it does not really require resources from their side,” says Shaista, the woman who made this donation drive possible.

She adds, “Another reason why it is effective is because it is a tangible change. They can literally count the books and see exactly how their contribution is helping others. It’s always better to give the books to a known place than an unknown source.”

“I’ve a good feeling inside that I’ve extended my service to poor children and the elderly. Other than this, I teach at a local village school because I love to spread knowledge. I know that since I can’t teach everybody, giving books is an indirect way of doing the same,” shares Hari Narayan, a volunteer from Mallya Aditi School. 

Seeing that this model has worked out considerably well, the plan is to expand and help donate books to other schools that need them as well.

“On our part, we have been trying to influence our friends to join us in this initiative. It feels great to work on something like this,” adds the 12th grader, who also personally goes to donate books to Kenny High School in Jakkur.

All in all, this initiative is a way for students to learn important lessons in teamwork, improve organisational skills and focus on effective communication to convince
people to contribute their books.