Telangana’s 11th Class student organises mobile library to help rural children

At times only a spark is needed to encourage a person to make the lives of others better. That is precisely what happened to Hyderabad-based Ananya Polsani, a high school student, who has started a novel project called Stories on Wheels.

The project is a mobile library that is well-stocked with books on diverse subjects and topics, and it will do rounds of areas of rural Telangana enabling children of government schools, access to reading material and inculcating the habit of reading among them.

It was during her vacation to Kodurupaka village in Karimnagar district that Polsani, a student of 11th Class decided to take up this community development project. She had gone visiting a local government school on her grandfather’s suggestion and realised that students there had tremendous potential and were as good as those from the urban areas. This made her think about how to help them.

It is then she decided to provide them access to good quality books and as there were several schools in the rural region, Polsani decided on a mobile library.

Going ahead she acquired an ambulance, books and sports equipment from donors. The tech companies helped her to get laptops with Internet connectivity.

Now the mobile library has all the resources to help students to pursue interests apart from studies. It will allow children to play sports, read and also pursue e-learning.

The van’s interior and exterior décor has been crowd-funded.

With a collection of more than 1,000 books, the van intends to help 1,500 students.

Polsani was supported not just by her family and relatives but also several friends, all of whom chipped in to help her realise her dream of helping students from rural region.