Room to Read Blog

Making the Transition: Graduates Surveyed about Life After Room to Read

Room to Read is committed to tracking results and improving programming. Our monitoring and evaluations team conducts studies on an on-going basis, and this year, we are conducting a post-secondary school transition study of our Girls’ Education program participants. In November 2010, Kirsten Anderson joined Room to Read as the Girls’ Education Program Fellow to conduct this study. She began research in India and shares her thoughts and experiences of conducting fieldwork with our inspiring girls. Stay tuned for updates from Kirsten’s research in India, Nepal, Vietnam and Cambodia over the next several months.

***

Weaving in and out of Delhi’s traffic on dusty streets, the research assistants and I finally arrived at our destination—a poor urban community located on the back side of an old fort wall. We had scheduled a focus group with four young women, each the first person in their family to graduate from 12th grade. This was our first day of research and our task was to make sure our freshly translated interview questions made sense for the young women we were interviewing.

The day was bitterly cold, and fifteen minutes into our first focus group, the power went out. For the young women we were interviewing, power cuts are a common occurrence. They didn’t even flinch and continued to talk about their financial struggles and having to balance work with university courses. For the research team, the darkness was a frustrating disruption. Not only is it hard to take notes and refer to the list of interview questions, reading facial expressions and body language in the dark is next to impossible. But the darkness was also a blessing, as it allowed us to really focus on the women’s voices—to listen to the details of their stories and feel what they were saying.

As of December 2010, 234 of Room to Read's Girls’ Education program scholars from India, Nepal, Vietnam and Cambodia have graduated from secondary school. This number will quickly multiply as the Girls’ Education program provides scholarships and material support to more than 10,000 girls across eight countries. What are the young women doing now? What do they plan to do in the next ten years? How has Room to Read influenced their lives and their goals?

For the next four months, the research team and I will conduct interviews and focus groups with the program’s recent and upcoming graduates. The purpose of this study is to learn more about how these young women navigate this time of transition and opportunity. How do they make decisions about higher education, employment, as well as marriage and possibly parenthood? What are their challenges? What are their success stories? The stories they share of their struggles, accomplishments and ambitions will teach us and inform our current and future programming, and give us insight as to how we can better prepare future graduates.

Collecting these stories, however, requires constantly balancing the rigors of research and the realities of the field. It means listening intently, asking the right questions and learning about the whole person and her story.

We recently met with a young woman who had just graduated from 12th grade. Her shaky hands and quick, quivering voice were not the results of the Delhi winter, but of an obvious sense of shyness and nervousness. Midway through, she stopped to tell us that she did not usually develop bonds with adults so easily, but she felt comfortable with us and wanted to share her story. She talked about her future ambition: to study English, to get a job and to support her family. She described her family and how her parents have supported her education—sometimes giving up meals to pay additional fees for her and her sister. Wanting to maintain an objective distance, the research assistant and I quickly busied ourselves with our notes so as not to show our eyes tearing.

As we presented her with a small thank you gift—a notebook and pen—she thanked us for giving her the opportunity to share her story. Yet, I am the thankful one. I am humbled and honored to spend time with these young women—so full of courage, strength and determination.

Every day, we emerge from our interviews to a different Delhi—warmer as the days grow longer. We have adjusted our vision, as these young women do every day when they think about and plan for their future. We anticipate our next interviews with a renewed sense of hope and focus.

Read more about how Room to Read tracks results in its programs.  

International Mother Language Day: Room to Read Keeps the Language Movement Alive in Bangladesh

On February 21, 1952, a large gathering of students and activists in Dhaka, Bangladesh, marched in protest of the declaration by the then Central Pakistan government that Urdu would be the national language of Pakistan. Fearing the loss of their mother language of Bangla, the people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), fought to save this critical piece of their culture, and in doing so, set off a movement for independence from Pakistan. February 21 was named Language Martyrs’ Day to commemorate this initial protest and it was renamed International Mother Language Day by UNESCO in 1999. This guest blog from Zaki Hasan, Room to Read's Country Director in Bangladesh, is a powerful reminder of how a community’s language can unite a culture.

* * *

It was the day before National Martyrs’ Day, a day that carries special meaning for all Bangladeshis. I was in secondary school at the time, and like most of my classmates, I was from a family on a very limited budget. If we wanted money for anything extra, like ice cream or other treats, we had to be innovative and entrepreneurial in raising it ourselves. 

National Martyrs’ Day honors the "language martyrs" who gave their blood in 1952 to protect the right of Bangladeshis to speak in their mother tongue language of Bangla. Each year, thousands of people gather at and bring flowers to the monument of Shahid Minar to show respect for the millions who died to maintain the Bangla language. Knowing we would have a sizable group of prospective customers, my entreprising friends and I devised a plan to produce and sell “alphabet badges,” painting a Bangla letter on a small piece of wood and attaching a safety pin to the back. To our surprise, our simple badges became the “buy of the day,” and we quickly sold our entire inventory of 100 badges in less than an hour!

Not only was this a lesson in supply-and-demand, it also illustrated the immense admiration for the people who participated in the language movement in 1952.That language movement ignited the urge for freedom in Bangladesh and led to a nine-month war for liberation in 1971—a war that cost the lives of three million people and injured millions more. Over the years, new generations continued to honor the great sacrifice of these brave pioneers and more and more people gathered at Shahid Minar. We were especially delighted when, in 1999, UNESCO declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism around the globe.

However, despite the increased awareness of the actual commemorative day, it is discouraging to see how little we, in Bangladesh, are actually emphasizing the effective teaching of Bangla, the language spoken by the majority of the population and used in primary school instruction. It appears that learning the Bangla language has become less important than learning English, mathematics or science. Parents are interested to know how well their child has scored in all the other subjects except Bangla, because getting low scores in Bangla is perceived as normal. Bangla language learning happens with such casual focus that our children are completing primary education with low levels of accuracy, fluency and comprehension skills in the language. The ultimate result is an overall impact on the quality of primary school education which ultimately influences the quality of education at upper levels.

At Room to Read Bangladesh, we are working to develop a generation of independent readers well-versed in their mother tongue. As leaders in this Bangla language literacy movement, we are supporting programs to improve Bangla language teaching, providing supplementary materials for early readers and establishing libraries in classrooms to address reading skills and promote reading habits. Fortunately, our work is well-received, and it seems that it doesn’t take much effort to remind people about the importance of mother tongue literacy.

Bangla is challenging to learn and to teach, and so we are trying to be innovative in introducing the language to students in ways other than standard grammar rule memorization. In 2010, we organized a Language Fair on International Mother Language Day, and used games, rhymes, songs and other activities to get students interested in learning. This year, in addition to our language fair, we will partner with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Reliance Life Insurance during the ICC World Cup in a global campaign to raise awareness of literacy. In various media events, national cricket team players from Bangladesh will meet with some of our students to promote reading and learning.

Like the strong connection to the Bangla language that my friends and I witnessed as we sold our alphabet badges so many years ago, I am again seeing a revived swell of pride in maintaining our mother tongue that we fought long and hard to keep. While having resources and processes are important for promoting literacy, the most important of element of any successful literacy program is to have people’s passion around the objective. Thankfully, in Bangladesh we have that in incredible amounts. We believe our ability to read and write Bangla with fluency and accuracy is a great tribute to the "language martyrs" and the dream that cost them their lives—a nation where people are free from injustice, inequality and poverty. 

Read more about our work in Bangladesh.

An Oasis of Learning in Nepal: School Library Serves Entire Community (VIDEO)

 
February 8 is the Saraswati Puja festival (also known as Basant Panchami or Vasant Panchami) celebrated in Nepal. The festival is devoted to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art. Traditionally during this festival children are taught to write their first words. In honor of this festival of knowledge, we share with you a visual story sent by Rishi Amatya, communications officer for Room to Read Nepal, about a modest school library atop a remote mountain that has opened up a new world to its many and varied visitors.

* * *

  

 

Nepal is where Room to Read established its first library. Today, there are more than 2,800 Room to Read libraries throughout Nepal. To learn more about our work in Nepal, we invite you to visit our website.

 

Auntie’s Books: Celebrating Vietnamese New Year with a Gift to Last a Lifetime

February 3 is Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese New Year, which is one of the most festive holidays throughout Vietnam. 2011 is the Year of the Cat in Vietnam and over the next several days, families will gather together to eat, share time and gifts with their loved ones. In this guest blog, Room to Read Vietnam Program Director, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, shares a gift-giving tradition she started with her nieces and nephews several years ago—a gift that will last well after the celebration has ended.

* * *

Tet is coming! Indeed, it is already here on the door step. Out on the streets, decorative lights are sparkling, apricot trees are blossoming and a sweet spring breeze is dancing. For Vietnamese people, Tet is just like Christmas for Westerners. It is a time for love and family, a time of reunion, of sharing, of giving, and of hope for a fresh, new start. It is also a time to give presents to family members and friends—especially to children.

The usual gift to children is lucky money stored in red little envelopes. There may also be new clothes or toys. Coming home for this special time with my family, my luggage is full of books for my beloved nieces and nephew. I have made a tradition of giving books to them since they were just a few months old, and my mother tells me that the children are already quite eager and excited to see what books I am bringing for them this year. 

When my first niece was born, I got her some children's books as a special gift, which amused and surprised my family, especially my mother. Every day my mother asked me the same question: “How can a little baby enjoy a book?” Since my parents, my siblings and I were never read to at home, I could understand her confusion about my choice of gift. When I learned that, in Western countries, parents read to their children before they go to bed, I decided that even though my parents did not share the value of early reading with their children, as an aunt I should introduce this gift to the new generation.

I started to share books with my eldest niece when she was around four or five months old. Every time I was with her, I found different ways to show her the books, pointing to a picture for her to look at and reading the stories with different voices and emotions. Sometimes I got her little fingers running on each page of a book. Witnessing my performance, her parents and others around us often laughed. But sometimes they also got absorbed in the story and kept quiet when I was reading to the baby. Now that she is seven years old, my niece is able to read many books by herself, and very well. The birth of more children meant more storytelling and gifts of books at every New Year celebration. After observing me read to her daughter and son, my sister also started reading to them herself.

Today, I continue to select books as presents for my nieces and nephew, and now, each child has a shelf filled with all kinds of books. I also keep some with me so that, when we are out with the children, there are books for them to read or just to hold. At home, the children and I talk about the books we have read and often make up stories about characters and objects from real life. To them, learning to read is part of life—just like eating, drinking and sleeping.

Once again for Tet I’m coming home with books. I cannot wait to give the children their gifts for the New Year and to continue the tradition that I have kept with them since they were babies. I know they will learn many other important skills as they get older, but the skill of reading is the most wonderful thing that I can give to them as their auntie.

Read about how Thuy and her team at Room to Read Vietnam worked with the Ministry of Education in Vinh Long province to secure "reading periods" for children. Visit our website to read more about our work in Vietnam.