We the students of SPJIMR, Mumbai got an opportunity to work with Food4Thought Foundation as part of Social Sensitivity project. On the second day of our internship, we got an opportunity to visit the Mandal Parishad Primary School at Shamshiguda.

It was nostalgic to visit the school and look at the students playing around. We were amazed to see students who were filled great energies and they gave us a warm welcome. Food4thought has been associated with this school for a while and has been doing great work towards establishing library and encouraging students to read beyond their academic books. Several initiatives like Joy of Reading, #IamBond have been successful in encouraging more students to inculcate the habit of reading. Students mention the summary of their monthly reads, also sketch their favourite character in the IamBond passports.

We went to reward the students who have read the maximum number of books and who have best utilised the IamBond passports. They were very excited for the prize distribution, so were we. We have distributed prizes to the top readers of the month with the help of school principal. The principal encouraged all the students to regularly visit the library, read more so that a greater number of students will be rewarded next time. These gifts were tokens of appreciation for their efforts and for encouraging them to develop more reading habits which thus, becoming more aware of things around, also it was observed that students with more reading habits showed better academic performance. These gifts were sponsored by Chotta Bheem (Green Gold Animation).

We were elated to listen from the students about their experience with Joy of Reading and IamBond initiatives taken up by Food4Thought. When asked about her learnings through reading, Kushali, a 4th class student, told that her favourite book is NeetiKathalu(Moral Stories) and her favourite quote is “Never Harm anyone even if they’ve hurt you”. Thus, reading habits inculcate morals apart from knowledge.

It was an enriching experience visiting and interacting with young minds. Thanks to Food4Thought for providing us with this great opportunity.

Preethi and Snigdha
(Interns from SPJIMR, Mumbai)