Today, on the World Children’s Day, Gaon Connection launches ‘Connection’, a free-to-down monthly magazine for children. It is a one of its kind bilingual monthly magazine in Hindi and English for both urban and rural kids.Gaon Connection

Connection aims to encourage children to cultivate reading habits and widen their expanse of knowledge. What makes this magazine special is that a large part of the content of the magazine has been authored by children.

CLICK HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD OF CONNECTION MAGAZINE

“We have launched Connection on World Children’s Day; and through this magazine we want to connect the worlds of rural and urban children. At present the magazine is in English and Hindi, and hopefully soon, it will be available in other languages too,” Neelesh Misra, Founder of Gaon Connection said at the launch of the magazine.

The e-magazine is available for a free download on Gaon Connection’s website.

In its launch edition of November 2023, the magazine has visually interactive articles on themes like Formula 1 racing, rap music, quizzes, indigenous seed preservation, importance of exercise and outdoor activities, fun facts, gardening, and DIY activities.

“As parents we are all struggling with the new world of screens and online content. Mostly content that children scroll through, barely absorbing what they’re looking at but getting impacted by it nonetheless,” Khila Bisht, Editor of Connection magazine told Gaon Connection.

“I remember as a child in the 70s being given a subscription to National Geographic. It changed our lives, broadened our horizons and connected us to the world. I hope our kids magazine Connection will do the same for children today. And being bilingual, we hope to add more languages as we go along, we also hope it connects children to their roots and languages,” she added.

Connection has both fiction and nonfiction stories written by children. For instance, the lead story — Formula One: The Pinnacle of Motorsport — is written by 16-year-old Devyani, who lives in Gurugram. The story on rap music is authored by Nandini Bisht and Khyati Bisht, who live in Nainital in Uttarakhand.

Talking about the need for the launch of the magazine for children, Nidhi Jamwal, Managing Editor of Gaon Connection, said, “I am a child of the 80s who grew up in the hills of J&K. My friends and I poured over children’s magazines such as Target, Chandamama, Tinkle and Champak. I am saddened to see kids now glued to gadgets and online video games. Will they never know the joys of reading?”

“To give them a taste of the magic of reading, Connection magazine brings stories that will transport them into a world of imagination, adventure and learning in a fun way,” said Jamwal, who is Consulting Editor of the Connection magazine.

Apart from the children’s e-magazine, Gaon Connection also brings out a monthly e-magazine, Teacher Connection, with stories of teachers, and rural education. It also has information and resource material for educators to become better teachers.Gaon Connection Launches ‘Connection’ — a Bilingual Magazine for Children

The Teacher Connection e-magazine is also available for a free download on Gaon Connection’s website.

The Gaon Connection Insights vertical regularly brings out open source publications that provide insights into rural India.

On September 5 this year, on Teacher’s Day, Gaon Connection also released a free-to-download book on 100 Tales of Teachers Transforming Education in Rural India. This book can be downloaded here.

Last year on December 2, when Gaon Connection turned 10, it released a unique compendium of stories of rural women. Titled 50 Success Stories of Rural Women in The Pandemic, it has stories of extraordinary courage, grit and determination of women in rural India who stood up to the pandemic. The e-book can be downloaded here.

Gaon Connection Insights also releases an annual publication — The State of Rural India Report — which summarises the key developments and events in rural India in a particular year.

In addition to these reports and books, Gaon Connection Insights has conducted three face-to-face rural surveys across India during the pandemic and published three exhaustive reports on survey findings.

These rural survey reports can also be downloaded for free at https://www.gaonconnection.com/surveys-reports