Poorvi Kunzru/University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2011 “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go.” ‐Dr. Seuss I am Indian by birth, have lived in 6 different cities, visited 33 states in America and 28 countries around the world. I have also spent an average of fifteen hours a week on community service since sixth grade. A combination of these two factors, my international flavor and passion for community service, has made one fact evident to me – there is an obscene amount of inequality in this world. To instill more balance in today’s world, to foster peace, it is critical that we educate the youth and the women in developing countries. For a child to simply pass, let alone succeed, in the public education system in India (which is standardized by national examinations), it is imperative that the child seek tutoring outside of school and turn to educational resources, specifically the internet and a variety of textbooks, outside of school. Needless to say, those children who live in slums, inappropriately labeled the “slumdogs,” cannot afford tuitions or extra textbooks. Akanksha, a non‐profit organization based in South India, enters into 54 of these slums scattered in Pune and Mumbai and provides fifty to one hundred of the students in these slums with after‐school English and Math tutoring. With the first hurdle somewhat overcome in these 54 slums, the second obstacle still remains – the students still lack the educational resources to succeed in the Indian education system. How can a student write an essay on the Roman Empire if the student does not have access to a single book with the word Rome in it? How can a student be expected to pass the National Math Exam if they only have one tiny math book to practice the problems out of? It is the lack of an answer to these questions that inspired me to embark on the Kitab Korner project. ‘Kitab’ translates to book in Hindi and Urdu. The slogan of the project “padho aur badho” translates to read and grow. The goal of the project is to build library centers, also named Kitab Korner, in each of the 54 slums where Akanksha is located. The library center is a place where the children and mothers of the slum/village can read English, Hindi and Marathi books, check out books, and attend bi‐monthly activity sessions. The activity sessions include book discussions, guest lecturers who will talk about a chosen book and the main topic of that book, creative writing sessions where the children write and then compile stories into their own books for the library etc… Each Kitab Korner wears the façade of a simple library but at its core, it is a resource center where underprivileged yet curious and enthusiastic women and children can come to learn, imagine, and laugh. This summer I hope to open ten libraries in Pune, India. Each library will be built, financed and sustained in a manner similar to how I created the first Kitab Korner. The first Kitab Korner was opened in the span of two short weeks in Bhopkhel village in Pune, India during the summer of 2008. To open the library I first had to get permission and land from the village. To do this, I met with the leader of the village (each slum or village in India has an unspoken leader, often a lady, who is known as the ‘Big Boss’). The leader referred me to a lady by the name of Ms. Ghule who owned a run‐down shed in the heart of the village which she was willing to give me for the purpose of building a library. With the land and shed at our disposable and the financial assistancep of Forbes Marshall (a company which sponsors the Akanksha Center in Bhopkhel) and a gentleman by the name of Mr. Viresh Kothari I had the center renovated, painted with the yellow and blue Kitab Korner colors, and filled with over 500+ level 1‐8 English, Marathi and Hindi books which we bought from Scholastic and NBT publications at cost. My next task was to train girls in the village to be librarians (i.e. teach them how to catalogue and check‐out books) and to then catalogue the books with the girls. I worked in the library at my High School and now work at Van Pelt Library in the University of Pennsylvania and was thus able to train the level 8 students from the village myself. Once the girls were trained and the books were catalogued we asked the teacher who volunteers at the Akanksha center in Bhopkhel whether she would also conduct the bi‐monthly activity sessions for Kitab Korner for an additional stipend (paid for by Forbes Marshall) and she willingly agreed. We then hired a lady from the village by the name of Sunita Mausi to open and close the library everyday and clean the library once a week. Sunita Mausi is paid a monthly salary of Indian Rs. 200/‐ by Forbes Marshall. As a finishing touch we had a sign made which displayed our (legally trademarked) logo and had it hung over our library. I email the head of the Akanksha center in Bhopkhel village, Ms. Bina Joshi, twice a month, and call the teacher who volunteers at our library, Ms. Dhan Laxmi, on the first of every month in order to get status updates on the progress of the first Kitab Korner. I also maintain monthly contact with Forbes Marshall, the ongoing sponsors of this first Kitab Korner. I visit Pune at least once year and am therefore able to visit the Kitab Korner and see the progress first‐hand, check inventory, re‐train the new level 8 students in the village etc… Thus far the project has been more of a success than I could have imagined. For the first time in their lives the children have access to colored, pretty, interesting, and rich books. Not only are they better able to tackle the challenges of the Indian school system, they also love learning. As an added bonus, the first Kitab Korner has also helped integrate the dalits (or outcastes) of the village into the village society because many of the children who run the library are outcastes and the library itself is located in the heart of the village and is consequently accessed by everyone. Bridging gaps between the outcastes and the rest of the community is a constant challenge in India and I am so proud that a simple library center is what helped linked the two groups in this one village. I would invest the $10,000 from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace Scholarship to build ten more sustainable libraries in Pune this summer and to sustain these ten libraries for two into the future (by which time I will have acquired additional sponsors). I will find the location for these ten libraries and the teachers and students who help make these libraries sustainable with the assistance of Akanksha; I have already had significant communication with them on this matter. The ten additional libraries will be renovated and set‐up in a similar fashion to how I set up the first one; we will use the same carpenters, electricians, furniture shops and publishers. For the next ten libraries, I would also like to use the fund to hire 1‐2 university students who will attend and contribute to the bi‐monthly activity sessions as well as take pictures and write up‐date reports to email to me. If the library encounters a problem these students will be my on‐the‐ground resources. My first library took two weeks to construct and I anticipate that building the next ten will take no more than 3‐4 months. Beyond these ten libraries I hope to build dozens more libraries in the coming years. We also plan on establishing this project as its own non‐profit organization by the end of the summer. Once we are a non‐profit it will be even easier to gain corporate sponsorship. My lawyer, Mr. Manoj Soni, is helping me with these legal issues. I will not use the Scholarship money to convert the project to a non‐profit. I am currently working with two friends, Irving Ling (from Newcastle University, UK) and Geoffory Bablon (from the University of Pennsylvania) to set up a website which will inform people of our work, update sponsors on the status of each of our libraries and detail to other inspired individuals how they can build a library in an underprivileged community near them. The ten libraries the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Scholarship will potentially fund will naturally be featured on this website which should be complete in the next 3‐4 weeks. This project is feasible; I have already built one library and know exactly how I should approach building the next ten, it is sustainable, and it is impactful. Mother Theresa once said that “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” I know that building a few libraries in South India will not bring peace to the whole world. But it will educate 100s of underprivileged children who will then have the knowledge, ability and desire to bring peace in their worlds. And from one Scholarship, one summer and one vision this is more change than I could hope for.