Kids meet real-life heroes at Angels of Mumbai book launch

The Angels of Mumbai initiative by The Free Press Journal reached an exciting milestone on Wednesday with the launch of two brightly illustrated children’s books based on the lives and work of real-life change-makers featured in the Angels Of Mumbai series. The event was held at the Khoj School, run by Apni Shala Foundation, at the Limboni Baug municipal school in Govandi.

Philanthropist Amita Chauhan, an all-India board member of Social Venture Partners India, inaugurated the books and addressed students on how books and stories inspire young minds to grow into individuals with kindness and compassion. “Through books you can dream without sleep, learn without studying, and you can reach a new place while sitting at home all along,” she told the group of nearly 40 wide-eyed students.

Later, the Class 1 children listened with delight as Pooja Patel, the author of the books, read aloud from the stories.

Two of the four champions featured in the books, Abodh Aras of Welfare of Stray Dogs and Monisha Narke of RUR Greenlife, were present to interact with students. The students were enthralled as Aras spoke of his work that has ensured vaccination, sterilisation, nutrition and medical care for Mumbai’s stray dogs, and Narke described how her work has stopped millions of used Tetra Pak cartons from further clogging landfill sites.  

 “This book series is going to go a long way in helping children learn about change-makers and real life change. This should inspire them to do good things in their own communities,” Chauhan said.

In its sixth year now, the Angels of Mumbai series has published over 150 features describing the work undertaken by changemakers in the city. By converting these stories into children’s books, the aim is to nurture values of empathy, responsibility and imagination among young readers, while helping them connect with everyday heroes.

Sangeeta Zombade, director of Apni Shala Foundation, said the opportunity to meet real-life change-makers created a positive energy for the children. “For our young ones to see that this is real, and this is possible, that good work can be done, that kindness can be shown, was a very pleasant experience for us to witness today,” she said.  

President of The Free Press Journal, Abhishek Karnani, spoke to the children about making the daily news accessible for young minds through the school edition of the paper. Also present at the event was Rajiv Mehta of Ratnanidhi Charitable Trust, the FPJ’s partner in designing and publishing the series. Two more titles in the collection will be released soon.  

The children's book series is a unique outreach under The Free Press Journal's Angels Of Mumbai initiative. If you would like to host a reading in your school, please get in touch at angels@freepressjournal.in