Building a nation of critical readers.
Imagine a free community library in a remote Indian village, nestled amidst the Himalayas. An ‘active’ library where locals have access to best-in-class literature and can engage in arts, play, storytelling and more! That’s what we at Let’s Open a Book do.
Let’s Open a Book is a registered NGO, with the mission to build a nation of critical readers. Our free libraries are currently located in Spiti Valley and Manali (Himachal Pradesh, India). You can read more about our Founder, Ruchi Dhona, here.
Spiti Valley is a cold desert mountain valley, located at an altitude of 3,800 mts above sea level. The roads leading to Spiti are considered to be among the most dangerous in the world. In 2018, Lahual & Spiti was named as one of the world’s top ten travel regions by Lonely Planet.
Spiti is very unique in its culture, history and even geography. The world is waking up to Spiti, seeing it as an oasis of peace and calm. This is leading to a boom in economic development of the region, led by tourism. However, Spitian people are currently not being able to be equal and fair participants in the development of Spiti Valley, which is leading to several challenges in their environment. We aim to increase the readiness of Spitian children so that they can be active, equal and fair participants in the development of Spiti Valley.
There are several reasons why Spitians are currently unable to participate equally and fairly in this process of development and preservation of Spiti Valley, but we are specifically focused on the fact that critical thinking can be really helpful in doing the same. Therefore the key outcomes of our work are improved critical thinking among children, because they are the Spitians of tomorrow. There are several ways to develop/ improve critical thinking, but we will be focused on improving critical thinking through reading.