This is a story from Kolkata’s Sodepur area.

Class one student Saborni hardly five or six year old is learning the meaning of giving, she is learning about the realities of life, thankfully not in a sinister way but in a very fulfilling way. She belongs to a well off family but after school hour she goes from house to house to collect newspapers. There are 37 such children doing the same thing.

When they collect a respectable lot of newspapers, after convincing the home makers to give them for free instead of selling them. They sell these newspapers and with the money they receive they finance the education of the less fortunate kids of the nearby slums.

This fabulous idea of teaching their kids the importance of hard work and also making them aware of the problems faced by the less fortunate kids was the brain child of Ambarish Nag Biswas and Tapan Das. They formed an organisation with a select 37 children who collect newspapers after training them how to convince people to hand over the old newspapers for free instead of selling them.
The money received is then used to buy stationery items for the slum kids.

They have managed to collect 112 Kg of newspapers which they sold at Rs.10/- per Kg.

This organisation is taking one step at a time. This program is initially for one year, the target is to help 117 kids by providing them education kits. 17 kits have been given till date.

The NGO’s which used to provide basic amenities to these kids are feeling the restrictions imposed by the global meltdown. At present only the local area is covered, but they plan to spread their wings to cover a wider region, providing help to many more kids.

Even the young social workers are enjoying their jobs.They are also encouraged by the positive response by the people and for them it is fun to collect newspapers to help those of their age who want to study but are unable to do so because of financial constrains.

The best reaction is from Sabir Ansari, the kid who was the recipient of one of the education kit. As his father lost his job because of the closure of the factory, he found it difficult to continue his studies but now he is very happy.

There is always light at the end of dark tunnel and if one door is closed at least one tiny open window is always there.