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The Children's Resource Center run by Timbaktu Collective is located in C.K.Palli village (Ananthapur, A.P.) and is a space for village children and youth to have access to a library, arts & craft, laboratory, computers and playground. It also acts as a vocational training center for adolescent girls. The skills include tailoring, screen printing, bamboo work, wood work, etc.

The Objectives of the CRC are:
1. To provide a learning space with a variety of resources accessible to the children
2. To create opportunities for children to learn various crafts
3. To create facilities for celebration of events and festivals.

Timbaktu Collective works on rural development in three mandals - C.K.Palli, Ramgiri and Roddam of India's second most drought prone district, Ananthapur in AP. For over 20 years they have done this through eco-restoration, child and youth rights, women's self-help groups, organic farming and producer owned business enterprise development and efforts in alternative education.

Children Resource Center caters to children from age group 4-18 and youth through its different activities and resources.Children of different ages visit the center at different times and it is a challenge to design activities which will cater to such mix of children. More over, new activities and innovations need to be introduced continuously to sustain the interest of the users.

Currently , around 250 children use the center .Though we would like to increase the number of children from surrounding villages, the lack of proper transport facilities is a challenge. Since it is difficult for children to reach our center, for us to reach out to children of villages, a mobile Children Resource Center would be the best way.

Story 1:

Sravani of Chennekotha Palli village completed her Grade 10 from the local Government High School and joined the Intermediate (Grade 11) but dropped out because of the family economic conditions. Her father and mother work as daily labor in construction work and earn when they have work only. Her younger sister is studying in Grade 9, while her younger brother studies Grade 6, both in the local Government school. Sravani in interested in stitching and tailoring of ladies dresses and has joined the centre last month. She thinks that the small stipend will help her family economically and also in the studies of her siblings.

Story 2:

Deepika studied in her village ‘Pallennagaripalli’ till the Grade 5 and then till the Grade 10 at the Chennekotha Palli High School. Later she did not continue her studies due to family conditions. Her father died of illness and mother works as maid. Her bother works in a small farm doing agriculture. She likes to learn crafts work, tailoring and stitching. She has joined the centre in January 2011 and has learnt quite well the skills of making Bamboo craft, screen printing and stitching shirts.

Story 3:

Mabu who had been coming to the CRC since his 10th to learn Mathematics and English. He also developed a facination for computers then. During the course of BA (math, economics, stats) he used to teach children math and learnt more about comptuers and started taking care of computers at the center He used to come to the CRC in the mornings and attend college in afternoon. When one of the friends of the CRC (Anand) visited they noticed his keen interest in tinkering with computers. On completion of graduation he interned at Anand’s company for a month (Tran life science). He found employment in a company as a system administrator and worked there for a couple of yrs. In this time, he learning more about coding both from the internet and collegues and for a couple of yrs has been working as a software engineer (now at DELL). While a lot of what has happened are based on the individual choices of Mabu and effort he as put as an individual, the spark that the CRC ignited with access, guidance in such a remote place can also not be denied.

A number of activities have been added over the years based on the inputs from various sources including interns, asha-volunteers and Timbaktu staff and friends. The library has grown to over 10,000 books. The center is now supporting 8 adolescent girls (Kumaris) who have dropped out from school. Without this opportunity, in the rural setting they would have been married by their families.

The plans for future are to increase the reach of the Children Resource Center as well as the coverage. A mobile Children Resource Center which would travel to various villages could be one way to do it. We also plan to introduce new activities and programs like English speaking courses, livelihood oriented training courses for drop outs and also provide services/resources to nearby schools.We also hope that in future, the arts and crafts training currently for adolescent girls (Kumaris) becomes self sustaining.