In the goal of making education more accessible, a crucial barrier is to ensure that educational aids such as notebooks, pens and pencils, compass boxes, writing-pads and school bags are made available and affordable. 13 years ago, SRLC identified this as a key challenge faced by families in rural Gujarat. Offering a solution, SRLC launched Shrimad Rajchandra Educational Aids, an annual distribution drive through which high quality educational aids are distributed to less privileged students at highly subsidised rates. Since inception, educational aids worth over Rs. 30 crores have been distributed to students.
In 2018, SRLC distributed 25 lakh notebooks and 1.5 lakh stationery items worth Rs. 7 crores through more than 150 centres across India. In addition to Dharampur, Ahmedabad, Anand, Botad, Idar, Jamnagar, Nadiad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Vadva in Gujarat, several new cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune etc joined the initiative this year. It is worth noting that a majority of volunteers involved in this distribution drive were senior citizens and youth. The young volunteers also conducted a training on retail sales for students of Shrimad Rajchandra Vidyapeeth and Shrimad Rajchandra Gurukul, who provided immense support in the distribution drive.
The notebooks include photos of Shrimad Rajchandraji and Mahatma Gandhi on the front cover, serving as an inspiration for students to follow their values. Inspiring messages from Pujya Gurudevshri are also included, which give practical tips on how students can handle challenging situations. The eco-friendly notebooks are of ‘Classmate’ brand while the compass boxes are of the ‘Kores’ brand.
The distribution drive received wide coverage in newspapers like Sandesh, DamanGanga Times, Lok-Janshakti, Saamana etc. Shrimad Rajchandra Educational Aids provided the right tools at the fingertips of students, augmenting their joy for learning and empowering them to pursue their dreams.