Members of Mumbai’s Dawoodi Bohra community, who visited schools in Mokhada taluka of Palghar district last week to distribute notebooks, brought back trees as gifts from the predominantly tribal students.

As part of their Independence Day programme, the Dawoodi Bohras distributed 12,500 notebooks to around 2,000 students in 27 schools, many of which are run by the Zilla Parishad or district administration. The programme was organised by the Dawoodi Bohra community’s philanthropic arm, Project Rise, and the Diganta Swaraj Foundation, a group operating in Mokhada, to provide essential educational resources to needy students and to foster hope and ambition among the youth of the area.

Mustafa Khorakiwala, a former student of Dawoodi Bohra School of MSB Education Institute, who was part of the team that visited the schools, said the children had received textbooks from the government but could not afford exercise books. “The children need at least 50,000 exercise books and providing the books is part of our ongoing project. They have also asked us for computers,” said Khorakiwala, an accountant and tax consultant.

The region faces problems like high levels of malnutrition, poverty and low literacy rates. Shraddha Shringarpur of Diganta Swaraj Foundation said that during their 10 years of work in the mostly tribal talukas of Mokhada, Jawhar and Dahanu, they have seen an improvement in learning levels and enrolment rates. “Teachers have said that one reason for the improvement in learning levels was the availability of notebooks. Earlier, parents did not buy notebooks and teachers did not give homework to children because they did not have books to write in. Since the advent of notebooks, teachers have been giving children writing assignments to do at home. Students also use the books to practice art and painting,” said Shraddha.

The programme began with Poshera High School and Zilla Parishad School in Nirgudwadi and Vakarichapada. The highlight of the programme was the extraordinary interaction between the visitors from Mumbai and the students. The students gifted trees to MSB alumni who planted them in their school premises. “We gave what we had (the books) and they gave us what they have in abundance – trees,” said Khorakiwala.