By Mayank Jain:

Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh is a 292 square kilometers big home to flora and fauna including leopards, tigers, jackals and mongoose; of species which don’t exist in large numbers. Conservation Wildlands Trust from Mumbai is conductingÂ a spectacular crowdfunding campaign to set up a library in the middle of the reserve for the benefit of children who live in villages near the reserve.

The campaign, run on Bitgiving, proved to be a huge success and raised 108% of the target funds in less than 15 days. Since the day the campaign went live, donations in the form of old books and encyclopedias to stock up the library have also been pouring in.

This is the success story of Internet used as a great platform to make dreams come true. The Education-Base, also called E-base project pioneered by Sir Robert Swan will house the library near the Turia Gate of the reserve. It serves as a classroom and helps curious students learn more.

“When the students come to the E-Base, it is almost as though they enter a new world; even the most common insect or plant is suddenly a subject of analysis. The E-Base marries the cause of education and conservation. It is a space to learn, question, discover, and a library will help them do just that! This library will address some essential concerns surrounding their education and present an opportunity to use the resources we are making available to help them further their futures,” says Pooja Choksi, Head of the E-base program.

The library will cater to more than 12 hundredÂ students from the nearby villages and serve the objective of having a library which is not so common in the villages. This will increase their curiosity and make them more aware of the society and environment they inhabit, thus raising up their literacy levels. With the campaign already having funded 108%, the organization is now looking forward to raising much more and replicate the model for the E-base program at the Pench Tiger reserve in Maharashtra.

Pooja Choksi, said, “When we began this campaign, we imagined raising Rs. 70,000 to be an uphill task. However, the support we received within just 15 days of the launch of the campaign has encouraged us to replicate the E-Base library project in Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, too. We’re looking forward to raising another Rs. 70,000. Let’s hope we manage to do it!”

Moreover, the social crowdfunding platform BitGiving which only caters to the community indulged in the social good sphere is ecstatic about the massive success.

Ishita Anand, COO, BitGiving, added, “We’re proud to host this campaign on our site. Our vision with BitGiving is to take crowdfunding to the masses and build an ecosystem where both initiatives and funders can converge seamlessly. Compared to the worldwide surge with respect to crowdfunding, this ecosystem for crowdfunding does not exist in India yet. This campaign is an example of people who have connected to a cause and come together to fund a library for children in the E-Base in such a short period of time.”

The campaign is still going strong and you can contribute or know more about it here.

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