Children's Literature Festival
Featured Review
Ghummakkad Narain - The Travelling Children's Literature Festival
Aims at working with schools and children between the age group of 3 years to 18 years. The aim is to inculcate a habit of reading among children which would help them to perform better in school in other subject areas. There is enough reserach to prove that improved reading in children is linked to increased children in school, improved learning and decrease in school drop out rates.
The festival works across private and state owned schools in the states of Delhi, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya. Being a travelling festival it travels to whever it is invited but we try to reach out under-priviledged areas and to children who have never experienced the joy of reading or interacting with writers.
The festival believes in starting class libraries in schools which do not have access to books. The initiative has been very well received and schools were we initiated class libraries went on to demand permanent library support from the state government. Our aim is to make the effort sustainable and ignite the joy of reading.
The festival is hosted in a couple of schools in the host city, where children from other schools are also invited. Thereby reaching out to large number of children. Each year the festival reaches out anywhere between 2000 to 4000 children.
The festival organises a range of activities in schools, creative writing workshops, poetry writing sessions, poetry recital, film screenings, illustration workshops, story writing, reading sessions, discussions, workshops for teachers on storytelling, writing, improving retention and creativity among children, etc.