When you give someone a book, you don’t just give them paper, ink and glue, you give them the possibility of a whole new world. The desire to provide students the resources they need to succeed brought us to the most remote villages across Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu states in India.
The event was part of our Global Day of Impact (GDI) activities. Part of Citrix’s community outreach programs, GDI is a day of service that benefits charities in our local communities. It gives our employees a chance to come together, across teams, and make a difference in their own communities.
The Journey Begins
Children are one third of our population and are all of our future. The least we can do for our future is to provide every child the right to education. It’s important to remember a child who reads will be an adult who thinks!
We started our preparations a month in advance of our 300-kilometer journey to the villages. From placing an order for books to packing and stacking them in different cars, planning activities for the kids and keeping all the volunteers notified — we had a lot to keep track of. But the burden was lightened through the efforts of many hands anxiously engaged in a good cause.
It’s hard to believe the contrast in the quality of life of the children in urban areas with that of the children living in the villages. We realized that we often take for granted the very things like food, water, housing and education that we should be the most grateful for.
We arranged games and quizzes for the kids and distributed water filters, desktops, and 8,000 books to about 1,500 students, but we got back much more. We received a thousand smiles and a ton of unconditional love.
While we were thinking about how we were making a difference in their lives, we started to realize that it was the children who made the difference in our lives. We came with books and went back with a heart full of joy and food for the soul.
The experience brought to mind a Sanskrit sloka about education:
न चोरहार्यं न च राज्यहार्यं न भ्रातृभाज्यं न च भारकारी |
व्यये कृते वर्धत एव नित्यं विद्या धनं सर्वधनप्रधानम् ||
Meaning: The wealth that cannot be stolen, neither abducted by state,
Nor can be divided amongst brothers, neither it is burdensome to carry,
The wealth that increases by giving, that wealth is knowledge
and is supreme of all possessions.
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