BENGALURU: A month-long collection drive of old school textbooks, novels, workbooks, art and craft books, do it yourself guides, stationary, school bags and uniforms by 45 communities of Whitefield, concluded this week with residents collecting over 500 boxes. This was as part of School to School drive started by Delhi-based NGO Goonj.

“I have two daughters and at the end of every academic year, we are forced to buy new books by schools. It is sad to see the old books which are in a perfectly good condition accumulate and eventually disposed off as waste, when it could well be used by someone else. I have been co-ordinating this drive for the last five years in Whitefield but it was this time, that we got an overwhelming response from 45 apartment communities. We had six to seven drop-off points inside apartment clubhouses where people could come and drop off their children’s school supplies. Volunteers would sort, package and label them,” said Sampa Chakraborty, who co-ordinated the drive for all the communities.

In the previous years, only 15 to 20 communities would participate. “Owing to Goonj’s network, these donations go to interior parts of states all over India and reaches people who are deprived of basic necessities,” she added. The NGO’s School to School initiative aims to address the educational needs of children in villages, many of whom quit studying owing to reasons such as lack of notebooks, or for not being able to afford pens, pencils and bags. These remain under-utilised by urban school children and the drive was aimed at redirecting the school supplies to those who could re-use it.

Uma Narayanan, one of the other co-ordinators, said, “We received so many donations and they did not fit into the two trucks, which is why we had to call for a third truck to take it to the NGO’s drop off point. Children and mothers spent each day of the month sorting out the supplies. We received a lot of geometry boxes, pencils, sharpeners, a mix of academic and story books. This has been our biggest drive so far in terms of participation and donations.”

Meera Sanghvi, who co-ordinated the drive from DNR Atmosphere community, said, “We had CBSE, ICSE textbooks, workbooks with Q&A, art and craft for children to learn drawing, origami books with chart papers, do-it-yourself or hobby books, a few children’s novels such as Fantastic Four, Secret Seven, etc.”

The collection from Whitefield ended on April 27 and was sent to the NGO’s drop off point near Kudlu Gate on Hosur Main Road.