Anil Kumble launches 'Books, my Friends' campaign

It was a great day for some students of Kiriya Pushpa, Mysuru, and Amala’s Kutumba Abivrudhi Yojane, Tumakuru. They got to perform in front of an appreciative audience at the Bengaluru office of ChildFund India. They got to pose with cricketer Anil Kumble and they got a bag full of books! Kumble launched CFI's three-year campaign 'Books, my friends/Kitabein meri dost', which aims to donate books to 1,15,000 underserved children in 14 states of India. Pratham Books is proud to have many ofour books in those bags.

“Will you read these books? Will you share it with others once you have finished reading them?” asked Anil Kumble, speaking to the children in Kannada. As the kids nodded happily and shouted out their responses, we spotted one girl surreptitiously opening the bag she had just received to take a peek at the books!

For my colleagues and me sitting at the event, it was a moment when our work had come full circle. Ever since Pratham Books signed up to be the content partner to ChildFund India for this project, our team has been on overdrive. Not just our team, but also our translators, reviewers and so many others who jumped into the task and work to tight deadlines to get the books ready.

To see those books in the hands of children was to see a project reaching the desired goal. It is ironic that on the same day, thousands of miles away at the Nobel Awards Presentation, Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai, remarked,

"Why is it that giving guns is so easy, and giving books so hard?"

We're happy that Pratham Books could work with ChildFund India to make the difficult possible. And on we shall go to see more books in the hands of every child.