Telenor celebrates World Book Day by donating around 10000 books for under-privileged children

Food 4 Thought Foundation to use the books to open 25 libraries in the next 100 days NEW DELHI,AKASH DWIVEDI, 2016: To celebrate the love for reading and joy of giving Telenor India did a book collection drive on World Book Day. The campaign, ‘Book for Smiles’, was launched in partnership with Food 4 Thought Foundation and encouraged Telenor employees to support this noble cause by donating books. Around 10000 books were collected across Telenor’s six circles. The books from this collection drive will help Food 4 Thought Foundation, a non-profit organization working to bring social change through books. The foundation will also open another 25 libraries in schools, communities and hospitals across India in the coming 100 days. On this occasion, Pooja Thakran, Chief Communication Officer and Social Responsibility Head, Telenor India said, “With a population where the school dropout rate is the highest and just one-third of the population having access to read, it is important to encourage the habit of reading and make access of good reading material available to the unprivileged. Telenor India organized a book donation drive across all its offices and stores to collect books for their NGO partners to inspire children with interesting reading material and to spread the message of - Knowledge is Power. Every book donated will have an impact on enhancing the literacy levels and instill the habit of reading amongst children”. To increase access to books and promote learning levels among under-privileged children, Telenor joined hands with Food 4 Thought Foundation to collect books. As part of the campaign, collection boxes were placed at over 50 locations including Telenor circle offices and retail outlets. The contributions included new and old books of diverse genres such as education, comics, fiction, children and science. Through this activity of collecting books, the foundation will be able to set up multiple facilities promoting the habit of reading and encouraging children with better knowledge. “We are extremely happy and proud to work with Telenor India on their 'Books for Smile' campaign. We sincerely thank Telenor for supporting our cause and helping the Foundation take a giant leap towards opening multiple libraries in a short span of time and for bringing smiles to a wide range of book lovers. We hope that other corporates also join in for such drives & support the Foundation,” said Madhavi Sharma, director, Food 4 Thought Foundation. As a company focused on promoting child rights through multiple efforts, Telenor India has worked towards building resilience amongst school children through safe online training named WebWise. The company had also made efforts in the past to create awareness on Anti-Child Labour Day and has consistently driven the message of not employing minors as labour. Telenor India initiated the book collection drive last year and distributed 10000 books. In the second year of organizing the Book donation drive, Telenor India employees yet again volunteered & went out collecting books and encouraging children to promote reading habit.