Come, give books for the 'great wall of education'

If you missed out on it last year, here is your chance to help some of those who are not as privileged as you are. The "great wall of education" book donation drive, partnered by Hindustan Times and Aviva India's 'Street to School' arm, is back this year.

If you missed out on it last year, here is your chance to help some of those who are not as privileged as you are. The "great wall of education" book donation drive, partnered by Hindustan Times and Aviva India's 'Street to School' arm, is back this year.

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The event will begin on November 11 commemorating the birthday of Abul Kalam Azad, which is celebrated as National Education Day. Two NGOs, Save the Children and Khusi — both work with less fortunate children — will be involved in collection and distribution of books.

Around 200 schools in the NCR are expected to take part in the initiative this year, which will culminate on November 15.

Students of various schools have been requested to contribute at least one book, including textbooks, encyclopedias, storybooks, workbooks, dictionaries, etc. The collected books will then be brought to DLF Place, Saket to create a wall of books on November 11.

Last year, over a lakh books were collected from various schools. Volunteers working for over a month sorted the donated books into 17 categories.

Some of the of the books were recycled and the rest were sent across to some 30 projects run by Save the Children, reaching out to 1.7 lakh children.

"Given the huge success last year, we look forward to an even bigger response from the public to make a tangible and valuable difference in the lives of many more children this year," said Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children.

TR Ramachandran, CEO & MD of Aviva India, said: "The initiative aims to improve the lives of thousands of underprivileged children. Last year we collected more than 1 lakh books in Delhi. The overwhelming response has fuelled our ambition to make it even bigger this year."