Room to Read Blog

Getting Connected: Qualcomm and Room to Read Launch the School Wireless Computer Lab Pilot in Nepal and Vietnam

Just yesterday, Room to Read launched a special pilot project called the “School Wireless Computer Lab” with the help of Qualcomm Wireless Reach that connected schools in Vietnam and Nepal to the Internet – for the first time!   John Wood and others on the Room to Read team were witness to the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Shree Amarjyoti Gaunpharka Secondary School in the Kaski district of Nepal.  John was joined by representatives from Qualcomm, Nepal Telecom, the Secretary of the Nepal Ministry of Education, students and community members.  They all watched in amazement as students discovered what the Internet is all about and how it can act as a resource and educational tool for their future.

“Who is the 44th President of the United States?” asked John.  Quickly, students went to Google or another search engine to find out the answer.  “Obama!  Obama!” shouted the children with delight.  “What is the time in Sydney, Australia?”  Fingers scurried to find the correct keys and soon hands went up.  “5pm!  5pm!”  Students also met new friends at another school in Nepal through a Skype video chat. 

Each lab includes 20-25 computers that will serve as many as 50 students during a class period.  Outside of school sessions, the lab will be opened for the community so they can learn from it as well.   The community, through Room to Read’s challenge grant, has a stake in the project’s success because we required each school establish a Computer Lab Development Fund.  For each computer in the lab, a school must deposit $1,500 Nepalese Rupees (NR), which translates to approximately $20USD.  Therefore, the Shree Amariyoti School raised on their own $30,000 NR ($400 USD).  This money goes into savings account managed by the Computer Lab Management Committee so that the community can be responsible for and afford lab management and equipment maintenance after Room to Read’s support ends.  Amariyoti raised this money through fundraising activities like going door-to-door to collect contributions, sponsoring cultural events, and appealing for funding through the local temples.  While this is a challenge for any community, including Amariyoti, their success means they feel personally invested in the project and are owners toward its success.

In addition to providing training for students to learn basic computer skills through a government-sanctioned curriculum that Room to Read developed, each lab will use technology to teach other subjects such as English, math and science.

The pilot established five wireless labs in the Kaski and Kavre regions of Nepal and six in Can Tho Province of southern Vietnam because it’s in these regions where landline access is limited or unreliable.  By providing affordable and high-quality Internet connectivity to government schools, these wireless lab pilots will help underserved students bridge the digital divide and addresses the goal of universal access and opportunity in education.  In Nepal, all the labs were established in schools where Room to Read was already working. For example, at Shree Anarjyoti, we had already been working in the community and provided them a Reading Room library in 2007.  With the added value of a wireless lab, these students will be able to check out and learn from the over 2,000 library books and then continue to research and learn more on a subject that peaks their interest through the Internet.

Thank you Qualcomm!

To learn more about our pilot projects, click here.

 

Age of Enlightenment in India: Muslim Village Breaks the Illiterate Cycle for Girls in their Community

On the border of the Indian states of Haryana and Rajasthan sits a small, rural and very remote village of Mirzapur that claims they found enlightenment -– enlightenment from education.   I was fortunate to visit this village last week.

It’s a 5 hour drive to reach Mirzapur from Delhi along the highway and dirt roads packed with cars, trucks, 3-wheeled “autos”, motorcycles, bicycles, cows, camels and many, many people.  We are being taken into this protected Muslim community with Room to Read’s partner organization Alwar Mewat Institute of Education and Development (AMIED) who encouraged this once illiterate and uneducated community to support education and particularly, girls’ education.  They have found success -– since India gained independence 60 years ago, this will be the first generation of girls to attend school in this community.

In Rajasthan alone, Room to Read’s Girls Education program works in five districts and supports over 800 girls through five partner organizations.  In partnership with AMIED, Room to Read helps close to 200 girls remain in school -– some of those girls attend a pilot “bridge course” which tutors those forced to drop out of school and helps assimilate them back into school by catching them up with the mainstream curriculum.  When we visited the Mirzapur bridge course, we met over 40 young girls who are desperately trying to find their way back into school.

I saw one girl -- possibly 12 years old with a small infant and wondered if this was her own.  No, it was explained: this girl brings her baby brother to the course because she is responsible for taking care of him and if this means she has to bring him to school, that is what she does.  The teachers in the course encourage this; they encourage anything to help these girls transition back into the school system.

It’s not just the financial struggle for the family that keeps girls out of school.  Even more so in Rajasthan, it is cultural barriers among the Muslim communities that gave this community a statistic of a 0% literacy rate among women.   Girls are not encouraged to study and if there is school, it was typically taught by religious leaders outside of the mainstream school system.   But AMIED would not hear of this and a few years ago began an underground movement to ingratiate themselves into this community and start a “wave of enlightenment” -– starting with the men of Mizapur and teaching them the value of education.  AMIED felt if they could just convince one of the stronghold Muslim communities to change their ways, they would act as a model for others in the region who would want to follow their lead.  And, it’s been working! 

 

We sat with the men’s educational council who explained after many years they have recognized the value of education and feel comfortable with girls attending school because they have trust that it will help their community in the long run.  Just four years ago before the campaign began, only fifteen children attended the local primary school – all of them boys and since 1952, only 20 men in all had graduated.  Now, after AMIED’s campaign and with Room to Read’s support, there are 575 children in the school and 275 of them are girls and with so many students attending, they built a secondary school so students could continue their learning!  In fact, we met Rajbala, the first girl ever in this community to complete 8th grade and she is now being treated as the local celebrity.   She told us, “when I graduate, I hope to become a teacher and give back to my community who has provided me this opportunity.”

-- Rebecca Hankin

Room to Read and Twitter are fermenting something special!

The tweecret is out of the bag!  Just announced today is that for the first time ever, Twitter (www.twitter.com) has decided to formally partner with a charity as part of a Corporate Social Innovation initiative –- and they have chosen Room to Read!  We could not be more excited (and honored)!

Twitter is calling the project the Fledgling Initiative and it's all about Twitter staff participating in a fun experiment to create wine with the San Francisco-based custom winery, Crushpad (www.crushpadwine.com).  Five dollars from every bottle sold will go directly to Room to Read to support our global education programs. The wine’s own micro-site, www.fledglingwine.com, will feature news and updates documenting the wine’s development each step of the way.

John talks about more about this project through a special video below and you can read more about it through our latest press release.

Room to Read (@roomtoread) entered the "twittersphere" just a few weeks ago and we have already collected over 130,000 followers thanks to tweets by @Twitter and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and our addition into Twitter's suggested user list.  John Wood is also now tweeting away @JohnWoodRTR.  We can't wait to continue tweeting to showcase the importance of the work that we do, the amazing network of volunteers and chapters helping us promote and support our work in over 40 countries and most importantly, tell the stories about those children Room to Read helps to gain the gift of education.

All the celebrating around our new partnership will take place today, Thursday October 15, at a Twitter event in Tokyo as well as Room to Read's fundraising events in Austin and San Francisco.  Get your tickets before the events are sold out! 

Purchase Tickets:

Click here to purchase tickets for the San Francisco event.

Click here to purchase tickets for the Austin event.

 

It's Back! Atlassian Relaunches Starter License Package to benefit Room to Read

Last April, Atlassian, a seven-year-old global software company, raised over $110,000 in just 5 days for Room to Read by offering $5 licenses of their two flagship products JIRA and Confluence – they called it the Atlassian Stimulus Package. Little did they know at the time, but the initiative ended up raising enough money to help us build 16 libraries in Cambodia, provide a year of education to 68 girls and publish one Khmer language storybook.

Well, they’re at it again! Following the success of the stimulus package, Atlassian received tons of requests to bring back the deal. Atlassian’s response? Ask and you shall receive. They’ve just launched the new Atlassian Starter License program so users now have the opportunity to purchase any six of their most popular software products for just $10, with all the money benefiting Room to Read.

Talk about a win-win. For Atlassian, it’s a chance to help small businesses and development shops gain access to some of the best tools in the industry at a bargain price while doing good deed. For Room to Read, it’s a new and creative fundraising initiative that will enable us to reach millions more children with the gift of education.


For more information about the program and to help Atlassian generate more support for our work, please visit: http://www.atlassian.com/starter.

World Teacher's Day Tribute: Guest Post from Bangladesh

I first saw him when I was a secondary school student. A group of volunteers from “Bishwo Shahitto Kendro” (World Literature Center) came to our school to invite us to join their Book Reading Program. More out of curiosity, I joined the program.

I was handed a list of 16 books that I had to read and at the end of the course, there would be a test.  At the time, I was in a public school and we had no real library facility so I didn’t have a clue that such wonderful books existed in the world!  Those 16 books made me interested in reading even more books, especially because I scored highest in that test and received the books as a prize directly from the founder and CEO of Bishwo Shahitto Kendro, Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed – one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever had in my life. I stayed in the program for three years following that award and continued to be inspired by Professor Sayeed’s motto, “We want enlightened people.”

When I was admitted to Dhaka College, Professor Sayeed became my direct teacher. Every class that he taught excited and encouraged me.  He became not only my idol as a teacher, but my hero as an educational activist and it made me start thinking about devoting myself to the education sector which has now become my career path.

When I became Country Director of Room to Read Bangladesh, I went to Professor Sayeed to invite him to help me launch Room to Read in Bangladesh but he didn’t recognize me -– how could he with thousands of followers and students that he has made during his lifetime?  But I told my beloved teacher, “Professor Sayedd, the reasons I have reached  this leadership position in my life and am now working to promote reading among children is because of you and your Book Reading Program.  You taught me about the importance of reading and I have become positively impacted  because I followed your advice and chose to read more books.” Thankfully, he gladly accepted my invitation to be a part of our Room to Read Bangladesh launch ceremony and it made so proud to share the stage with one of my greatest mentors.

Decades had passed but Professor Sayeed still delivered his speech with the same enthusiasm and excitement about the importance of ensuring reading opportunities for children.  His speech energized me even more and I said to myself, "Yes sir, I have experienced the good side of reading and surely I will work hard to make sure that millions of children of this country can go through similar experience of enlightenment”.

-- Zaki Hasan, Country Director, Room to Read Bangladesh

Learn more about our programs in Bangladesh.