As we conclude another successful year at Room to Read, I would like to thank everyone in the Room to Read family -- staff, donors and volunteers -- for all of your support. Your commitment to our work has allowed us to reach new heights each year and has helped change the lives of millions of children throughout Asia and Africa.
I encourage you to take a minute to meet some of the children we have impacted through the video below.
Inspirational images like these remind me how much our work means to our partner communities and our students and how excited I am, with your help, to reach further in the year ahead.
We have big dreams and I hope that you will continue your support and join with us in 2010 and beyond as we open the doors of opportunity for children throughout the developing world.
Thank you again and Happy New Year,
Erin Ganju Co-founder and CEO, Room to Read
P.S. Inspired by the images of children enjoying their first book or library? If so, please consider Room to Read for your end of year giving.
We heard this morning from our Country Director of Room to Read Sri Lanka, Glen de Mel, with some exciting news:
It is with great pleasure that we inform you that we have successfully concluded the 2009 Local Language Publishing book launch with the Honorable Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Rathnasiri Wickremanayake.
The Prime Minister spent almost two hours with our team — along with our authors and illustrators — and each author and illustrator personally presented their titles to the Prime Minister. One of the leading authors in the country, Dr. Leel Gunasekera, made a speech on our local language book titles and following, the Honorable Rathnasiri Wickremanayake gave a speech highlighting Room to Read's efforts and presented us with a Letter of Appreciation under his seal.
At this event, we ceremonially handed over 44,000 books (approximately LKR 15 million or USD $131,153 ) to be distributed among the children in IDP camps and re-settled areas in the war-affected north. These books will serve 22,000 children and provide each child both an English-language and a Tamil-language book.
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This news is on the heels of the Financial Times reporting from our programs in Sri Lanka. Read more through the links below and don't forget that all donations made toward the Financial Times campaign (up to US$1 million) will be matched thanks to the generosity of three of Room to Read's corporate donors: Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse and Atlassian.
Room to Read builds libraries in Sri Lanka December 18, 2009
It looks like a normal prize-giving ceremony at a normal school. Children are arranged by age on rows of seats in the barn-like hall. They wait patiently, a burble of chatter rising on the boiling air towards the tin roof....Read the full article
Drawing out talent to create children’s books December 15, 2009
By day, R.C. Pradeep Kumar runs the gauntlet of Sri Lanka’s political and ethnic divide as a cartoonist working for a Tamil daily newspaper.By night and at weekends, he turns to the less politically sensitive pursuit of drawing illustrations for children’s books...Read the full article
Room to Read's results in Sri Lanka December 11, 2009
The first thing I noticed about 11-year-old Kasun Amarasinghe was the state of his shirt. Theoretically white, it was tinged with a bluish sheen, possibly the result of being washed together with his navy blue shorts.....Read the full article
This is a guest post from Rishi Amatya, a Room to Read staffer in Nepal.
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Bishnu Maya Gurung, age 60, woke up a little early that day anticipating what was on the horizon. She cooked and cleaned around the house, hoisted her granddaughter on to her back and made her way on foot to the Shree Lamaguru Secondary School. It takes her approximately 15 minutes to walk from her house to the school; it was the school her kids attended and last she heard, it was now in shambles and needed major attention.
She was well aware of the school's existence since it had been established in 1974 -- some 35 years ago when it was one of the first schools to be opened in her native area of Jugedhara, Dhading, Nepal. Jugedhara is a 2-hour uphill walk from Dhadingbesi, the district headquarter of Dhading district, which itself is about a 3 hour journey to Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu.
Bishnu Maya remembers when she first heard that the school was in decline. “There was even the talk of shutting it down,” she remembers. Around the same time, circa 2001, the school elected a new management committee and a new head teacher. The new management committee, along with the local members of the community, vowed they would restore the school to its former glory.
Starting in 2001, the new management committee scoured various ways to improve their educational status in the district. They knew that the Shree Lamaguru Secondary School was the only school in the nearby vicinity so it was vital that they take charge because failing to do so would mean that their children would have to walk for hours to attend another school. The school explored numerous options and alternatives for fixing the situation; they called in various organizations to help –- which some did. However, one day a member of the local community heard about Room to Read and their Challenge Grant model and thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to rebuild the school.
“The community needs to pitch in,” Bisnu Maya remembers thinking out aloud. The last time the community got together was to advocate giving the barren patch of land to the school. Now it was again their turn to help the school but this time they needed to be more proactive and engaged to ensure its sustainability.
The school called a meeting with the community. In the meeting, the members passed a motion that they would all come together to help build the school. And, that same year, they did -– joining hands to clean, excavate and help in whatever way they could.
On November 24th , when the school was on the last leg of construction, Bishnu Maya, along with rest of the community, came waltzing in with a special spring in their steps. They helped to smooth over the land that would house the future playground for their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. Like swarm of bees, they came in droves and immediately started to work. Some of them brought their own tools, some used their hands and did whatever task was required. Despite their senior age, many grandparents like Bishnu Maya, also pitched in to help.
“It shows that how eager they are to build the school,” says Som Nath Nepal, the head teacher of the school. It was due to him and Kaal Bahadur Gurung, the School Management Committee head as well as Musa Ghale, the head of the Construction Committee that the school is in such a progressive phase. The hard work and dedication put forth by these three was matched equally by the local community. The head teacher believes that the community, most of whom are under-educated or illiterate, “instinctively know the value of education” and came to help in the physical construction of the school.
Kaal Bahadur Gurung voiced the same opinion. “The community,” he says, “are more than happy to help.”
And, on the day when she hoisted up her granddaughter on her back, Bishnu Maya was joyous and celebratory. “I’m doing this for my granddaughter,” she said and then motioned to a cherub sleeping peacefully on her back. "One day, when she grows up, she will be able to look back fondly on her school. It was the school her grandmother help to construct."
To learn more about our School Room program, click here.
Seven-year-old Mohan is Mallika’s classmate who shares her love for story books and he is always all ears during storytelling time. (Read about Mallika’s captivating narration skills in Part I here).
Each day Mohan takes a book home; however, he can only enjoy the pictures because he struggles to actually read the books by himself.
Mohan’s teacher Ms. Nipunisa explains, “Mohan is a bright and enthusiastic student, but his reading skills are not in the same league as Mallika’s because he has no one at home to help with his studies or reading -- which means he continually lags behind.” Mohan comes from a broken home; he stays with his grandmother while his father works as a mason, often returning home long after Mohan has gone to sleep.
So Room to Read and Ms. Nipunisa decided the best way to help Mohan improve was to pair him with a classmate who could read along with him to help him practice. Mohan seems quite happy with the arrangement as he points to a classmate and says “I ask my friend Hasan to read out the stories to me and together we enjoy the book.”
His teacher acknowledges that even though Mohan is a slow starter, he is an eager student who loves school and never takes a day off. “Of course I love coming to school,” chirps Mohan. “I never miss school and I wish we did not have to sit at home on weekends. In school, I get to play with my friends and listen to the stories my teacher tell us every day. My favorite story is about a squirrel and a rabbit because I love animals. Someday I will keep a dog as a pet and write a story about him.”
Mohan’s aspirations don’t end there. When asked when he was plans to narrate a story like Hasan and Mallika, he is quick to answer. “The next time you come you will see me standing in front of the class and reading loudly,” says Mohan while flashing a thumbs up sign to seal that pact.
