Pratham Books at JLF Outreach 2019.

By Rajesh Khar

This is the 9th year of Outreach Programme that is jointly managed by Pratham Books and Teamwork Arts, the organisers of JLF. In this 9th year we aim to conduct about 115 sessions in almost as many schools in and around Jaipur.

A very interesting mix of schools have been selected for Outreach this year; there is a good number of non-profit run education centers like Samudayik Gyanshala and Pratham Rajasthan; a good number of low budget private schools that have sprung up across Jaipur; a good number of well known private schools and almost all the inclusive education centers like Prayas Centers.

The invited guests for Outreach have a similar eclectic mix of resource persons from various parts of India and outside world. Some of the names are Deepa Balsavar, Deepa Agarwal, Prof. Zachary Leader, Dr. Ajoy Sodani, Seema Wahi Mukherjee, Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang, Amupama Raju, Swagata Sen Pillai, Dr. Shivani Kanodia, Abha Massey, Rohini Vij, Yann Martel, Sadhna Shankar, Harsh Mander, Ahdaf Soueif, Anubha Rastogi, Arvinda Bhatia, Supriya Puri, Divya Bhatia and Richa Handa.

Almost all the invited resources have used a host of Pratham Books titles to create interesting sessions for the children ranging from classes 1 to 12th. Mostly in Hindi, these sessions typically last for an hour or so. A team of very dedicated volunteers escort every guest to their school and help them through in whatever small ways they can. This year Outreach has a team of 10 volunteers, all of whom are college students.

The 53 sessions that we have completed till today have been very successful. All the schools, their coordinators, the invited resources and the children have had a wonderful time through it all. 

Rajesh Khar is an Editor at Pratham Books, who enjoys creating, translating  and listening to stories. He was an active part of the JLF Outreach programme and has conducted four lovely sessions so far!