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A free school in Siliguri had no library. Since 2 October 2026, it has one.
Humrahi Foundation and Support Wings set up a library at Hasir Thikana, a free school at Hatiyadanga in Siliguri for children whose families cannot pay for schooling, and cleared the overgrown ground outside it into a place to play. It was handed over to 96 children aged 5 to 14 on 2 October 2026. This page is now the record of what was done and what it cost.
This is a joint project of Humrahi Foundation and Support Wings. Humrahi is a registered non-profit in Matigara, Siliguri, with 80G and 12A, so donations are receipted through Humrahi and Support Wings takes none of the money.
Keep it going
Books wear out, and a shelf gets read through faster than you would think. Money pays for repairs, replacements and the next visits.
DonateSend us books
Have books already? Here is what we can use, and what we cannot. Drop them at either Siliguri address, or courier them.
What we acceptVolunteer
Reading sessions, cataloguing, and keeping the library alive now that the opening day is over.
RegisterCannot give today? Send this to three people in Siliguri who can. That is how this page travels.
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Where this stands
Completed on 2 October 2026. What was done, what it cost, and what is still open.
- One school, named: Hasir Thikana. Run by Siliguri Unique Social Welfare Society at Hatiyadanga, Purana Kalimandir Road, Siliguri. It charges its children nothing; 96 children aged 5 to 14 were there on the day.
- The plan changed on 26 September 2026. This appeal opened three days earlier as libraries inside children’s homes. It is now one library, in one named school we have actually been into. No donation had come in and nothing had been spent in between, so nobody gave to the older version of this.
- The library is set up. Books from a donation drive across Siliguri, 20 to 30 September 2026, were sorted onto shelves in the hall on 1 October and handed over to the children on 2 October 2026, with volunteers reading the first storybooks through with them. A first lot of books and clothes had already gone to the school on 28 September 2026.
- The ground outside is clear. From 29 September to 1 October, volunteers and two paid labourers pulled out the overgrown weeds, cleared loose stones, rubble and litter, and levelled the soil so the children can run and play on it. No swing, slide or climbing frame has been put in.
- The day itself. On 2 October the children watched Chillar Party on a projector, had haircuts from a three-person team from The Trican Cuts, had their faces painted, and pressed painted handprints onto a tree drawn on a bed sheet, which now hangs on the wall of the hall. Every child had a banana, two coleslaw sandwiches and a lassi. 22 volunteers took part, with volunteers from Save Earth for Life.
- The money. ₹5,500 came in to this project. The work cost ₹17,000: food and drinks for the day, daily wages for the two labourers, face paints, brushes and art materials, the bed sheet for the tree, and fuel and transport for volunteers and materials. The other ₹11,500 did not come through this appeal.
- That is not what this page said the money was for. Until 2 October it said gifts would buy shelving and books, nothing else. In the end the books were donated, and the cost was the ground and the day. If you gave expecting shelving and would rather have your gift back, email a@myhumrahi.org and we return it, no questions asked.
- Money is not handed to the school. Humrahi paid for everything directly.
Every class at Hasir Thikana happens in one hall. Until October there was not a bookshelf in it.
Hasir Thikana is a free school. The children who come to it are from families in and around Hatiyadanga who cannot pay school fees, and for most of them there is no book at home either. The school is not short of teaching. It was short of the ordinary thing a child in a paying school takes for granted: something to read that nobody set as homework.
A library is cheap and it stays. Volunteers come and go, festivals get celebrated and end, but a shelf of books that belongs to the children is still there next winter. It is one of the few things you can put into a school once and have it keep working.
We are not claiming this fixes anything larger. It puts books where there were none, and it gives our volunteers a reason to keep turning up at the same place instead of visiting once a year.
We went to measure a wall for shelves. What we came away with was longer than that.
On 28 September 2026 a team from Humrahi and Support Wings spent a morning at Hasir Thikana, handed over a first lot of books and clothes from the Siliguri collection, and sat with the children and the people who run the school.
The thing that stayed with us was not the missing bookshelf. It was that there is nowhere for these children to play. The school is one hall; a yard with something in it — a swing, a slide, a frame to climb — is the sort of ordinary thing a fee-paying school has and nobody here has ever costed, because it reads as a luxury when the fees themselves are out of reach.
So the project at this school grew wider than a library. We wrote that down at the time, with dates and with the parts we had not started, rather than let it quietly expand later.
What we have committed to, and where each part actually stands
Books and clothes
A first lot went to the school on the day of the visit, out of the year-round Siliguri collection. Nothing was bought for it and no money moved.
A place to play
Three days of ground work, 29 September to 1 October: weeds pulled, loose stones and rubble cleared, and the soil levelled into an open playground. No swing, slide or climbing frame has been put in; that is still the thing this yard does not have.
The library
Donated books sorted onto shelves in the hall on 1 October and handed over to the children on 2 October. The books came from a donation drive across Siliguri, so none were bought.
Volunteers, and sessions on waste
Volunteers on a regular slot to read and teach rather than visit once, and interactive sessions on waste and segregation — work Humrahi already runs elsewhere in Siliguri. Neither has a start date yet.
Rakesh Dutta was educated by exactly this kind of help. He now pays it back into the same school.
He rides a motorcycle with a stretcher frame and two first-aid boxes bolted to it, and around Siliguri people know him as Bike Ambulance Dada. He got his own schooling through help of this sort, and he now looks after the education of children at Hasir Thikana.
We met him on the visit, and he was the school’s point of contact for the work that followed. He is the clearest answer we have to the fair question of what a shelf of books is really for. The children in that hall are not the end of this. One of them comes back.
One project, run by two organisations.
Humrahi Foundation
Humrahi started in Siliguri with a daily food distribution that ran for 1,500 days straight before it ended. What grew out of it is still here: free skilling as a partner institute of the Skills Development Network, school adoption, health camps, waste management, and relief work in Assam, Nepal and Bihar. Humrahi held the money on this project, paid for the work and issues the 80G receipts, so it is Humrahi that answers for what was spent.
Support Wings
Support Wings is a youth-run movement founded by Tanishq Agrawal in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, and run entirely by people between 14 and 24. Support Wings reports volunteers across more than 70 cities (supportwings.org.in). Its education outreach programme, Shiksha Sabka Haq, is the one that meets Humrahi here; Little Smiles is the programme that puts its volunteers alongside children week to week.
How we work together
This project belongs to both organisations equally. Support Wings brought volunteers and coordinators to the work, and keeps turning up at Hasir Thikana now that the library is in, which is the part that decides whether a library survives its first term. Humrahi funds the work, buys the things and runs the Siliguri collection points. Humrahi’s leads on this project were Khushi Lepcha and Ankit Mahato; Support Wings’ were Juhi Dutta, Nityant and Samayam. We chose this school together and we will report on it together. The one part that is not shared is the money: every rupee is received, receipted and accounted for by Humrahi, because Humrahi carries the 80G registration. Support Wings takes nothing from this appeal.
What we can use, and what we cannot.
A collection point that fills up with the wrong books costs us more to clear out than it gave us in the first place, so please read both lists before you pack anything.
Please do send
- Picture books and early readers, in Bengali, Hindi, English or Nepali
- Story books and novels for ages five to eighteen
- Comics, graphic novels, folk tales and mythology
- Atlases, dictionaries, general knowledge and activity books
- Anything published in roughly the last fifteen years that is intact and readable
Please do not send
- School textbooks and competitive exam guides. These children are in school and already have those. We are collecting the reading they do not have.
- Encyclopaedia sets and old reference volumes
- Magazines, newspapers and catalogues
- Books with missing pages, water damage, mould or heavy marking
- Adult fiction, or anything you would not hand to a nine-year-old
Matigara
Humrahi FoundationParameshwar Niwas, Gudiya Jote
Near Himul Milk Factory, Khaprel Road
Post Nimai, Matigara
Siliguri, West Bengal 734010
Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm
Bhanu Nagar
Humrahi Foundation4th Floor, Beekay Centrio
Beside Payel Cinema, Ward 44
More, Bhanu Nagar
Siliguri, West Bengal 734001
Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm
Talk to Juhi before you come
Juhi coordinates book collection. Call or message her on +91 91019 39189 and she will tell you which of the two addresses is easier that week, and make sure somebody is expecting you.
Both addresses open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm. Courier is fine to either one.
Books arrive free. Keeping a library going does not.
Repair and lamination, replacing what gets worn out by being read, and transport for the volunteers who keep going back to Hasir Thikana. Gifts are reported against this project, the same way the ₹17,000 above was.
You choose the amount on the next screen.
Receipted, and eligible for 80G.
On the payment screen, Donate to project already reads “Orphanage Libraries, Siliguri” — this project’s older name, from before it settled on one school — and that is what tags your gift to this appeal.
We publish no price per child. Nobody has costed a child's reading, and we would rather say that than invent a figure. Gifts to this appeal are reported separately from our general donations. See how we report money.
Reading with the children, and keeping the library going.
Register once and you go straight onto Humrahi's volunteer roster. You need to be 18 or older to sign up. If you are younger, run a book collection at your school or college and message us on WhatsApp, which is genuinely more useful to us than one more pair of hands on a Sunday.
Questions
Does Support Wings receive any of the money?
No. It is a joint project, but the money side sits with Humrahi alone: Humrahi receives, receipts and spends every rupee, because Humrahi holds the 80G registration. Support Wings contributes volunteers and the day-to-day running. Nor was money handed to Hasir Thikana: Humrahi paid for everything directly.
Can I send books by courier?
Yes, to either Siliguri address above. Message Juhi on +91 91019 39189 first so somebody is expecting the parcel.
Do you accept school textbooks?
No. Textbooks and exam guides are the one kind of book these children already have. We are collecting the reading they do not have.
Which school is this?
Hasir Thikana, run by Siliguri Unique Social Welfare Society at Hatiyadanga, Purana Kalimandir Road, Siliguri. It is a free school for children whose families cannot pay for schooling; 96 children aged 5 to 14 were there when the library was handed over. The photographs at the top of this page are of its hall.
This started as a children’s homes project. What changed?
It did, on 26 September 2026, three days after this appeal opened. We went into Hasir Thikana and decided that one library in a school we had actually stood in was worth more than several in homes we had not yet named. No donation had come in and nothing had been spent in between, so nobody gave to the older version of this. If more schools follow, we will say so here rather than quietly widening the promise.
Is this still only about a library?
No, and that changed on 28 September 2026. After a morning at the school we committed to more at Hasir Thikana than shelves. The ground outside was cleared and levelled into a place to play before the library was handed over on 2 October. Volunteers teaching on a regular slot, and sessions on waste, are still intentions with no date; they are written out in full above so you can hold us to the difference.
Where did the money go?
₹5,500 came in to this project, and the work cost ₹17,000: food and drinks for 96 children, wages for the two labourers who cleared the ground, art materials and a bed sheet for the handprint tree, and fuel and transport. Until 2 October this page said gifts would buy shelving and books; in the end the books were donated and the money went on the ground and the day. If you gave and would rather have it back, email a@myhumrahi.org.
Can I give in kind instead of money?
Yes. Shelving, storage cupboards, reading mats and lighting are all useful. Message us before buying anything so we can tell you what the hall actually needs.