Lalmonirhat college student running local library since 2014
Sat Dec 17, 2022 12:00 AM Last update on: Sat Dec 17, 2022 02:41 AM
To spread the light of knowledge throughout a remote village in Lalmonirhat’s Tipar Bazar area, a local youth named Jamal Hossain founded a small library with just 10 books. Now almost 8 years later, the library is facilitating a reading community of 1,500 members with 10,000 books. Photo: Star
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To spread the light of knowledge throughout a remote village in Lalmonirhat’s Tipar Bazar area, a local youth named Jamal Hossain founded a small library with just 10 books. Now almost 8 years later, the library is facilitating a reading community of 1,500 members with 10,000 books. Photo: Star
This library has become a part of our lives. I’ve been coming here since I was in sixth grade. Besides reading books in the library, we’ve been doing various social activities in the village.
Sajib Mia, a 10th-grader
With a goal to build a well-read society, Sarpukur Youth Forum Library, situated in a remote village of Lalmonirhat’s Aditmari upazila, has been a hub for like-minded people who love to read and educate themselves.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. The library, located in the remote village Tipar Bazar and established in 2014, started with only 10 books. Now it houses almost 10,000.
What’s even more fascinating is that a college student of this village, Jamal Hossain, is the library’s founder and director.
Students of various educational institutions in surrounding villages rush there to read books every evening.
Although the library room is dilapidated, it’s still a popular place for gathering. Not only students but teachers, farmers, villagers and academics visit the place as well. They sit on the ground and read books together because of the shortage of space inside the library.
The library now has more than 1,500 members.
Sajib Mia, a 10th-grader, said, “This library has become a part of our lives. I’ve been coming here since I was in sixth grade. Besides reading books in the library, we’ve been doing various social activities in the village.”
HSC student Shakil Islam told The Daily Star that without this library, their desire to read books would’ve never blossomed.
The founder Jamal Hossain said, “The slogan we run by is ‘Let books be our constant companion’. One can never play a role in building an ideal society if one doesn’t love books.”
When asked what are his future plans for the library, Jamal said, “I dream of modernising this library and enhancing its capacity.”