Akshar Bharati

Hi people,

With the aim of introducing media people with various Akshar-Bharati activities and for inviting them for the first AB annual day, we organized a press conference at “Patrakar Bhavan”,navi peth, Pune on 22nd April 2008 (tuesday).

Mr. Anurag Agarwal from Symantec and Mr. Shailesh Ghatpande from Seva Sahayog conducted this conference. Various news paper representatives got their doubts cleared during this session. These journalists included representatives from well-read news papers like Times of India, Sakal, DNA, Loksatta, Lokmat etc.

Other AB members who attended this press conference included Hetal Rach, Nikhil Marathe, Rodney Martis, Prashant Kulkarni. Following were the informative brochures which were distributed to the media person.

the brochure :

Driven by a strong desire to help the underprivileged sections of the society, a few engineers from Symantec in Pune started an initiative known as Akshar Bharati. The driving idea behind it was to give something back to the society by setting up small size community library in areas which do not have proper library to cater to the hunger of reading of the local kids. The libraries were to also act as a catalyst in development of the children, help them become good citizens and contribute to the development of the country.
Akshar Bharati libraries are very low cost community libraries. Each of the libraries contains 500 to 1000 books that require just one bookshelf occupying about three square foot of area. Akshar Bharti does not expect a separate room or staff for the library and it could be operated from any office, home or room where the space of keeping the shelf is available.
Akshar Bharati collaborated with various NGOs, who help in running the library on a day to day basis. The activity of raising funds, and organizing various activities at the libraries on a regular basis, was taken up by the Akshar Bharati volunteers. Going by the way it has grown in the last one year, this method has been pretty successful.
Akshar Bharati has gone through an elaborate process to fine tune the list of books provided to the library. The books provided are brand new, colorful, in English as well as in Marathi, and include story books, activity books, biographies, science books etc. The books are rich in content and presentation.
Akshar Bharati was started on 19th of April, 2007 and within a year has set up over 35 libraries with more than 40,000 books around various parts of Pune. A volunteer force of about fifty engineers, Akshar Bharati manages to get things done in the arena of identifying the NGO, identifying the books, procurement, fund collection, cataloging of the books, setting up the libraries, consolidating the feedback received and many more things which come in the operational aspect.
Seva Sahayog has been instrumental in providing the back office support to Akshar Bharati in terms of managing the accounts as well as helping in the networking with various NGOs. Under the guidance of Seva Sahayog, Akshar Bharati has been very successful in running this project.
You can help us by becoming a volunteer and help us in one or more activity:
fund raiser, information management, procurement, weekend visits to the library, networking with NGOs.
Register as a volunteer today!
Please visit: www.aksharbharati.org
Email @ aksharbharati.india@gmail.com