10,000. That’s the number of books that have been read at Let’s Open a Book’s Spiti library in the last six months. I’m preparing for our first board meeting of the year when I realize this, and I take a moment to let this sink in. There are some more numbers which catch my attention – 45 children have finished reading their 1st 100 books and 19 children have finished reading 200 books in the same library space. We have had a footfall of 1500 and the total number of the members has tripled since last year.
It is almost unbelievable that we have managed to pull this off in one of the remotest parts of the country, at an altitude 12,000 ft. A place where we’ve been told that “no one reads”, over and over again. We’ve had members walk to the library amidst heavy snow. Children who are unable to visit the library on weekdays have spent entire weekends at the library, working patiently towards the 100 and 200 books milestones. Our librarians have made visits to children’s homes, when they’ve been sick, to drop off books for them to read.
Of course a lot of nudging, hand holding and conversation has gone into the making of this. But LOVE has constantly been the key ingredient. And so shall it remain. Here’s looking forward to the next 10,000!