‘100 Smiles Foundation’ sets up village library in Mahabubabad
Mahabubabad: Emphasising the need for more philanthropic activities to help the poor, Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Errabelli Dayakar Rao called upon the people to change their attitude towards fellow human beings and society at large.
“One should not only think about earning money and assets, but also think about helping poor people as one can not take anything with them when they leave this material world. Keeping this in view, one must allocate a portion of his or her earnings to help the society,” said the Minister who appreciated ‘100 Smiles Foundation’ for setting up a library at Ammapuram village of Thorrur mandal in the district.
Speaking after inaugurating the village library on Sunday, Dayakar Rao said books are treasure trove of knowledge that tell the history and predict the future. “People especially younger generation must inculcate the habit of reading books instead of getting hooked to cell phones and wasting time on social media platforms,” he added.
The founder president of ‘100 Smiles Foundation’, Manoj Kumar Chittimalla said they set up the library at the village with the objective of helping the villagers including young graduates who are preparing for the competitive exams. “All genres of books are available at the library. They include science, history, autobiographies, devotional books including Mahabharata and Ramayana, books related to competitive exams, and five newspapers,” he added.
“While Rs 60,000 spent on the books, Rs 40,000 was used to purchase the furniture for the library which was set up at the Gram Panchayat building as we entered into an agreement with the GP. The upkeeping and maintenance of the library will be taken by an attendant appointed by the GP,” Manoj Kumar, who hails from Thorrur mandal centre, said and added that they had taken up the Village Library project on a pilot basis.
A software engineer by profession who graduated from the reputed CBIT, Hyderabad, Manoj Kumar set up the Foundation in 2016 and the organisation adopted 25 government schools in the 10 erstwhile districts of Telangana and set up computer labs, digital classrooms, science labs and language labs in these schools for the benefit of underprivileged students in the last four years.
The Ammapuram village library project has been sponsored by Genesys Telecom Labs Pvt Ltd for which Manoj is working in Hyderabad. While the total population of the village is 8,000, there are 1,000 youngsters. “80 per cent of the youth are graduates,” Manoj added. Village Sarpanch, local leaders and villagers attended the programme.
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