Room to Read Blog

Half the Sky Movement Brings World Change to a Computer Screen Near You

Every month, users around the globe spend roughly 700 billion minutes on Facebook (according to MacWorld). It’s hard to imagine just how vast the positive impact would be if we spent some fraction of that time dedicated to conquering the world’s biggest social issues, but luckily we don't have to wait to find out. With its launch today on Facebook, Half the Sky Movement: The Game is designed to do just that!

Based on the real-world challenges faced by women and girls around the globe, as documented in the acclaimed book (and subsequent PBS documentary) Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the game aims to raise awareness and of these issues and invest in real-world solutions.

Half the Sky: The Game allows players to take actions that mirror the solutions employed by seven nonprofit partners (The Fistula Foundation, GEMS, Heifer International, ONE, Room to Read, United Nations Foundation, and World Vision), tying those actions to real-world impact through partnerships with the Pearson Foundation and Johnson & Johnson.

“We want to reach a broader audience for these issues we care deeply about,” said Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, co-authors of the best-selling book that inspired a movement. In seeking to bring their message to computer screens around the globe, Kristof and WuDunn found a kindred spirit in Games for Change, a non-profit that catalyzes social impact through digital games. “Around 300 million people play games on Facebook across the globe on a monthly basis,” said Games for Change Co-Presidents Asi Burak and Michelle Byrd. “If we’re able to inspire this group of players to spend just 30 minutes of their time with this game the ripple effect of players’ actions will result in hundreds of thousands of dollars towards this critical cause.”

In the game, players embark upon a journey through India, Kenya, Vietnam Afghanistan and the United States, taking actions along the way that unlock funds from the game’s sponsors. For example, players can collect books for young girls in the virtual world which activates a real-life donation to Room to Read. Players who are inspired by their virtual journey can also choose to make personal donations to partners at any point throughout the game.

Watch the trailer: 

 

Learn more about Half the Sky: The Game.

Get Ready. Set. Shop...with OO.com

As kids in the U.S. head back to school, September is the perfect time to spotlight the huge gaps in global literacy–-793 million people worldwide cannot read or write--which is why Room to Read and OO.com have joined forces throughout September and beyond to not only raise awareness about this critical issue, but to allow people to make a difference while doing something they do most days...shop! 

OO.com (a Next Jump company) is a leading shopping site for over 30,000 top retail brands. Through their website, they have already raised over $1.2MM to help public school classrooms for our friends at Donors Choose, and fortunately for us, they are now expanding the site to include the issue of international education with Room to Read as their charity partner.

Every purchase--from something as small as a new toothbrush to as large as your next vacation--means that OO.com will donate 1% of that purchase back to one of their nonprofit partners, including Room to Read, without any additional cost to you.

So get ready, set and shop on OO.com and remember to click "SUPPORT" on the Room to Read button to designate us as your charity. 

Read more about this partnership in the press release.

Show and Tell: Cricket Star Angelo Mathews Becomes the Character in New Children's Book, with Help from Room to Read

Cricket superstar Angelo Mathews is used to being at the center of attention, but last week the co-captain of the Sri Lanka team gained a new form of notoriety as the protagonist of a children's book published by Room to Read.

Funded by the International Cricket Council, Little Angelo's Big Day tells the story in Sinhala and Tamil of 10-year-old Angelo, who goes to watch his father play a friendly cricket match. After one of the player's becomes ill, it is up to Little Angelo to join the game and score the final run.

The book was launched in a ceremony at the Sri Lanka Foundation in Colombo on August 13. In attendance were 36 students from our partner schools, including several girls from our Girls' Education program in Hatton who have formed their very own cricket team (and won the under 16 tournament).

After the book had been revealed, Angelo read aloud from another Room to Read title and joined an illustration workshop with the students. He then fielded questions from the inquisitive crowd. "I wanted to be an artist and paint nice pictures," he said of his school days, "but my favorite subject was Mathematics."

When asked about his involvement with Room to Read, Angelo had this to say: “Let us do our level best for improving the literacy levels in this country.”

Learn more about our Book Publishing program.

Two Girls in India Find Themselves on the Path to Success, with Help from 10,000 Women

Last week, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three groundbreaking women from developing countries for their role in advancing both peace and gender equality. All three are shining examples of the link between shared prosperity and greater gender equality in leadership.

But despite the progress made by women like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, leadership roles in the public and private sector still remain elusive for women in developing countries. For many young girls, especially those in rural or underserved communities, the paths to running one’s own business or earning a descent wage are riddled with roadblocks.  

“Why is it that only men open shops and sell medicines,” asks Shaheen, a 10^th grader from our Girls’ Education program who dreams of owning her own pharmacy. “I want to change that and help serve my community,” she shares at an entrepreneurial skills workshop held outside of New Delhi.

A recent addition to the life skills curriculum of our Girls’ Education program in India, the entrepreneurial skills workshops were developed in partnership with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, which which provides business and management education to underserved female entrepreneurs in developing and emerging markets.

For girls like Shaheen, the workshops, which include a four day sleep-away camp, provide a unique opportunity to explore career goals and gain the skills needed to achieve them. The participants meet with successful local entrepreneurs who help them navigate concepts such as financial literacy, effective leadership, partnership, resource mapping and market research.

One of Shaheen’s classmates, Monica, has also come away from the entrepreneurial skills workshops with a clear view of her future. “I want to open my own boutique,” she says with newfound confidence.

Monica had the chance to share her dream with US Ambassador Melanne Verveer, who promised to buy an Indian outfit from the boutique once it’s up and running. Monica explained that with her family’s support, she hopes to be able to build a business that not only provides her with a comfortable living, but also employs others in her community.

Because support from family is crucial to the girls’ success, the entrepreneurial skills workshops also include informational sessions and meet-ups for parents. “My daughter is very intelligent and listens to whatever we say,” shares Mrs. Monika, whose daughter, Sweta is in 11^th grade. “Thus it is our duty to support her to fulfill her dreams.”

Read more about our Girls' Education program and our work in India.

Guest Blog from John Wood: Kicking off the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative

The excitement is palpable as the world descends upon New York for today’s opening of the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). I’ve been lucky enough to attend CGI on behalf of Room to Read for the past five years, and now sit on CGI’s Advisory Board. Every year I’m in awe of how the forum has turned into a catalyst for game-changing partnership and collaboration in the field of international development. Each year, I leave with new connections and new ideas that we have been able to implement to make a difference for millions of children across the developing world.

This year’s CGI will be no different. Room to Read will unveil an innovative report, the inspiration for which was born at a meeting convened by CGI last spring. At the meeting, Cory Heyman, our chief program officer, met with representatives from FHI 360 and Amenons Nos Filles á l’Ecole (ANFE), two other nonprofits working in the field of girls’ education. Despite the multitude of organizations around the world dedicated to girls’ education, they noted, there has been very little research dedicated to identifying the factors that contribute to girls’ success in reaching higher education.

Together they questioned: If we know that gender bias, safety concerns, early marriage, pregnancy and financial disadvantage are major roadblocks to tertiary education, then what are the success factors that can help girls in the developing world overcome them? In other words—let’s not focus on the barriers, let’s learn about the real-world solutions that actually work.

As the idea for a study identifying such factors began to take shape, The MasterCard Foundation, with whom we first connected at CGI 2010, stepped in to provide guidance and financial support—kicking off six months of rigorous research.

The fact is, even under the most challenging conditions, there are young women across the developing world charting new territory and taking the bold step of seeking higher education. We wanted to hear from them—in their own words—about the factors that were positively contributing to their success.

Our team conducted in-person interviews with 160 of these trailblazing young women in Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India and Mauritania, and found that despite political, cultural, and economic differences between their communities, the girls identified very similar success factors as being instrumental in their ability to reach university.

The young women we met shared personal stories that illuminated their common attributes of determination and courage. Many cited the encouragement of their families, teachers and communities as being paramount to their success, coupled with the material and emotional support they'd received from nonprofit organizations.

For Room to Read, these findings will help shape our Girls’ Education program curriculum, which we’ve built out over the years to go beyond financial support and to include extensive life skills training and mentoring as well as family and community engagement.

By releasing the final report at this year’s CGI Annual Meeting, we hope that these girls’ voices can reach across borders and help shape best practices in the field of girls’ education for years to come.

Read the complete report, Through Their Eyes, In Their Voices: Young women in five countries share their experiences navigating tertiary education, on our website.

Tune in tomorrow at 3:20pm EST to watch John Wood answer your questions live from CGI in an interview with Randi Zuckerberg broadcast on Facebook.

Three Ways to Celebrate International Literacy Day

Many of us don’t spend much time thinking about how literacy affects our life, but maybe we should…

Imagine being one of the nearly 796 million people worldwide who lacks the ability to read or write. It would make deciphering the contents of an employment ad, taking the proper dosage of medication and filling out a ballot form all nearly impossible.

The bad news is that most of those 796 million people live in developing countries, where access to a quality education can be extremely limited, so their children and grandchildren are likely to continue in the same path. The good news is that doesn’t have to be the case.

International Literacy Day is September 8, and Room to Read will be celebrating all month long by spreading awareness and raising funds to fight illiteracy in the developing world. Here are three things you can do to help:

1. Make a donation. Thanks to our partner, Better World Books, all gifts to our library program in September will be matched up to $40,000. That means that your gift and all others like it will have twice the impact!
2. Spare 140 characters. In today’s world, information travels fast…if you can read it, that is. Help give the twittersphere a taste of what a world without literacy would look like by tweeting an “illiterate” message to your followers with the hashtag #RTforLiteracy. For each tweet, Random House, Inc. will donate $1 to our programs (up to $30,000).
3. Educate yourself. Watch an interactive video about global illiteracy (produced in partnership with Credit Suisse's Global Education Initiative), or read about our work in Asia and Africa in our most recent newsletter. Then go out and spread the word!

And don’t forget to celebrate your own right to read this month.  Take the time to curl up with a good book, and remember what it is that made you love reading so much in the first place.

Read more about International Literacy Day on our website or refer to UNESCO.

Inspired to do more? Learn how to start your own fundraising campaign for Room to Read.

Guest Blog from John Wood: From Yak Bells to Closing Bells

From the earliest days of Room to Read, we have enjoyed a tradition of ringing a yak bell from Nepal in honor of each significant victory. Be it an investor funding a new school, a program milestone like our 10,000th library, or having made a key hire, the yak bell provides an opportunity for the Room to Read team to pause during very long days, take a deep breath, and celebrate with our colleagues.

This week, there is a new bell to ring–the daily closing bell of the NASDAQ stock exchange. 

One of the key reasons for Room to Read’s meteoric growth during our first decade has been the support of the business and financial communities. Companies like Atlassian, Barclays Capital, Bloomberg, Caterpillar, Credit Suisse, the Financial Times, Goldman Sachs and Jones Day have embraced our model of using education to empower people across the developing world to help themselves. Executives from such companies have joined our global Boards, hosted fundraising events, and been active members of our chapter network in 56 cities around the world.

 
  So it is with great pride that today Room to Read has been invited to ring the closing bell on the NASDAQ stock exchange. I am delivering the lunch keynote today in New York at an annual shipping industry conference called Marine Money on the topic of “Why Capitalists Should Care about Education in the Developing World.” Each year, the Marine Money team is invited to  ring the bell as the day’s frantic trading comes to a close. I was completely surprised last week when the event organizers emailed to say, “We’d rather see Room to Read in the spotlight, and have the world learn more about your team’s great work.”

And what a spotlight it will be. My short remarks, along with the bell ringing, will be streamed live online here. It will also be broadcast in New York’s bustling Times Square, via a 100-foot tall electronic billboard. Hopefully it will inspire the business community to continue to think big about the power of education to change lives.

The first time I delivered a yak-load of books to schools on Nepal’s Annapurna Circuit over ten years ago, I could never have imagined our little start-up receiving such an honor. From yak bells to the closing bell–we couldn’t have made it this far without you, our incredible community of passionate supporters. Go team!

 

Learn more about our corporate partners on our website.

Let's Make A (Groupon) Deal...for Girls' Education

Did you see the Room to Read deal in your inbox this morning? We hope at least some of you 33 million Groupon subscribers noticed! For the next five days, Groupon will be running a "deal" on our Girls' Education program—just in time for you to purchase that last minute Mother's Day gift.

Join us and Groupon's G-Team and donate $10, $25, or $125 to help Room to Read’s Girls’ Education program support the education of the next generation of young women in eight developing nations. The deal is being matched by our friends at Atlassian up to $100,000.

What do these amounts translate to on the ground? For every $125, one girl will get a year of comprehensive support for her education and life-skills training. When 500 people sign up for the deal (and we hit the minimum amount of donations needed to make the deal official), it means that at least 40 girls will receive one year of support. Each additional $10 raised will provide two weeks of academic support for one girl.

Special thanks to Groupon and our matching partner, Atlassian, maker of software development and collaboration tools and a long-term supporter of Room to Read through donations from its Starter License program.

The deal is going on now through Sunday, May 9. Please spead the word and let's close out this deal, because not only is it a great gift for mom, it's also the best investment you can make to change a girl's life.

Cricket Players Come to Bat for Literacy: World Cup Stories from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka

 
Cricket is practically a religion in South Asia and cricketers are no less than gods. The adulation and fanfare must be seen (and experienced) to be believed, and it is difficult for non-cricket playing countries to begin to understand the rock star status of these players.

With cricket being the second most popular sport in the world, Room to Read was thrilled when the International Cricket Council (ICC) named our organization as their charity partner for the 2011 ICC World Cup. Additionally, through a unique initiative, Reliance Life Insurance, one of India’s top private sector life insurance companies, committed to a 25,000 rupees donation (approximately US$550) for every “sixer” or boundary that the cricketers hit. So far, 132 sixes have been hit which translates to over 3.7 million rupees donated (US$82,000). With each six, you can imagine the cheers coming from our country offices in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka -- countries hosting the World Cup games!  

In an effort to draw attention to Room to Read's work and encourage donations, the ICC coordinated special events with both cricket players and students participating in Room to Read programs. Reliance Big FM, with a special "Hit Illiteracy for a Six" segment, Big Cinema, Big CBS and various other Reliance ADA Group platforms are being used to promote these interactions widely.

Reena Luke, Room to Read Asia Regional Communications Manager, attended the events and shares some of the unforgettable moments. For these children, meeting and spending time with their sports heroes was a dream of a lifetime. And even for the millions of children unable to attend these events, the support of ICC, Reliance Life Insurance and the global cricket-loving community will fulfill their dreams of becoming educated young adults.

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Tigers Celebrate International Mother Language Day in Bangladesh

  When the World Cup opened in Dhaka, Bangladesh, our Room to Read Bangladesh country office was ready to pitch! Just after their big game with India, the Tigers (the Bangladesh team’s nickname) were ready to take a break, and Room to Read invited them to celebrate International Mother Language Day on February 21 with hundreds of young children at the Pora Khela Utsob (Reading Festival) at the Kishalay Girls School and College in Dhaka.

The names of the players were kept secret until the last minute, and the entire community gathered to greet them at the gates of the school which was decorated with tents and colorful bunting. The invited students managed to squeeze their way past the adoring crowds and, after a security check, anxiously awaited the arrival of their favorite players. Each time the huge iron door creaked open, there was a collective gasp of anticipation, and children pulled out their autograph books and ran towards the gate.

Finally, after a couple of false starts, in rolled a cavalcade of cars with police escorts. Three cricket stars—Zunaid Siddiqui, Mahamudulla Riyad and Shariar Nafees—stepped out and immediately faced a wall of waving autograph books eager to be filled. Without wasting much time, the young heroes took to the field and ran with the children, took part in “Read and Run” games, signed more autographs, posed for photographs, visited all the booths, talked to the kids, and flipped through Room to Read’s local language children’s books. Shahriar Nafees even managed to give a brief pep talk to his young fans, “I want each of you to focus and read better. Reading requires practice like cricket, and to excel, one needs to practice.”

All too soon, it was time to say good-bye. The cricketers handed over prizes to the winners and gifted the school a full cricket kit. Said Mahamudulla, “It was a good experience, and I enjoyed the afternoon with the kids. I am happy to see that these young children are getting such good books to read.”

Eighth-grader, Zoya, exclaimed, “I will never forget this day. Imagine—I got to shake Zunaid’s hand!”

Girls' Education Scholars Practice Their Interviewing Skills in India

 
Across the border, in India, the ICC arranged several opportunities for Room to Read India to showcase their work to cricket lovers. Several match venues had Room to Read booths, filled with books and displays inviting book lovers to sponsor our reading programs. Aside from the matches, the big event of the World Cup was when four of Room to Read’s Girls’ Education program participants—Ishan, Ruppu, Renu and Moushmi—got an exclusive interview with Virat Kohli, India’s upcoming star cricketer and the nation’s heartthrob.

For these young girls, all from the Sarvodya Kanya Vidyalaya school in Tuglakabad village in Delhi, a trip to Bangalore by flight just to meet their favorite Indian cricketer was stuff that dreams are made of. And Virat made sure that they would remember this day all their lives by playing cricket with them, signing autographs and, of course, getting photographed with them. He even promised that once he was over with the hectic match schedules, he would visit their school and help to champion Room to Read’s cause. Said Virat to his young fans, “I am happy I got this opportunity to promote Room to Read. I would like to continue doing whatever I can to promote literacy and reading.”

Virat wasn't the only cricketer the girls got to meet. In the evening, the girls were taken to the stadium to watch the England cricket team practice. A sudden rain shower proved to be a blessing, for the players had to run for cover, and the girls knew how to grab an opportunity. Soon the English team was signing autographs and talking to the girls. Ishan even dared to ask the English captain about his strategy to defeat the Indian team! The captain threw up his hands and ducked to the nearest exit!

The BBC crew filming the event took the opportunity to meet the girls and learn more about Room to Read, and within minutes of the cricketers’ departure, the girls and the crew were fast friends. In fact, after a quick broadcast lesson, the crew found themselves on the other side of the camera being interviewed by the teenaged amateur camera-persons and reporters!

 

Shane Watson, Room to Read's ICC Ambassador, Teaches Fielding and Encourages Reading in Sri Lanka

March 3 is a day 10 children from central and northwestern provinces of Sri Lanka will never forget—for that is the day that they spent several hours with Australian cricket star, Shane Watson.

  Shane has been named Room to Read’s official ICC brand ambassador and, between World Cup matches, led a coaching session with the excited group of children at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. The children, all participants in Room to Read programs and all very avid cricket fans, received individual coaching about fielding from Shane, and one exclaimed, “We can’t even believe that we are practicing with Australian cricketers. Our worry is that no one would believe that we got such an opportunity!”

 
Reading has been a big part of Shane’s life since childhood, and he is anxious to help other children discover the joy of books. He humbly explained, “The cross section of people that cricket reaches means that we are able to reach a lot of people and promote the work Room to Read does. It is very special that we have the chance to impact people’s lives away from cricket. Hopefully we can touch as many people’s lives as possible and provide them with a chance to benefit from some of the things that we have been lucky enough to have.”

The end of the afternoon held another great surprise, as each child was given a personally signed photograph of Shane and a ticket to watch the match between Pakistan and Canada. Shane, too, was equally as moved when the children presented him with a picture they had created for him.

The event was covered by Yahoo, ESPN and Star Cricket. ICC also posted a short video that was screened pre-match on March 5. 

***

 
Room to Read will be featured on billboards, scoreboards and other events throughout the 2011 ICC World Cup which culminates with the finals on April 2. Visit our website to learn more about Room to Read’s World Cup partnership.

Read more through the ICC press release and Reliance Life Insurance's Facebook page.

Brrr-aving the Antarctic to Build a Room to Read Library

Room to Read donors often come up with the most creative ways to raise money to support our work. Last December, Frank Rohde, CEO of a software company in San Francisco, ran a marathon in Antarctica to raise money for Room to Read. In this guest blog, he shares his impressions and experiences of this breathtaking trip.

* * *

When the Russian cargo plane touched down on the blue-ice glacier near the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica, I knew that this adventure was getting serious. After having waited six days on the southern tip of Chile for weather clear enough to fly across the Drake Passage, the group of 37 runners I had joined on this trip finally got the “all clear” to take off. The flight from Chile to Antarctica took only four hours but it was four hours into an expanse that defies description. Larger than all of Europe, colder than any other place on earth, windswept and desolate—but with 24 hours of daylight. No one really knew what to expect, so when the doors of the plane opened and the stepladder was put onto the ice, my breath was taken away—by the biting cold as well as the magnificent views. I stepped onto the ice filled with excitement about the next four days in Antarctica.

The reason I was here was to compete in a marathon—or at least to reach the finish line—and in the process raise enough money to build a Room to Read library in South Africa. I’ve been a runner since I was a teenager and I complete at least one marathon every year. Last year I came across the Ice Marathon in Antarctica organized every year by a guy in Ireland named Richard Donovan. So I thought: here is an opportunity that allows me to combine a visit to the interior of Antarctica with camping on ice for a week and a real physical challenge!

After I signed up, I told a couple of friends and colleagues about my plans and got the same reaction from all of them: “You’re nuts!” I soon realized that this adventure was outrageous enough that I could use it as a charity fundraising vehicle, and remembered Room to Read from an article I had read in the Financial Times a year earlier. If I could raise $1000 for every mile in my marathon, that would cover the cost of a library. I spend a lot of time in South Africa every year for business and have grown very fond of the people there and decided to support a library project near Dutywa in the Eastern Cape in South Africa.

In addition to running, one of the things I’ve been doing religiously for almost 20 years is reading at least one book every week. I’ve always had an affinity for books and actually bought an old shipping container to store my own library! Of course I had brought a bunch of books on the trip to Antarctica, but now that I was here I forgot all about reading—this place was too exciting.

We spent the first day in Antarctica acclimatizing and on the morning of day two, we learned that because of the strong winds, the marathon was postponed one day. So, we filled the hours by sharing our own personal stories, and I learned that almost everyone was also raising money for a charity.

My fundraising strategy had focused on two groups: corporate donors and individuals. I had asked each of our clients to donate to Room to Read in return for branding and exposure during my run (their logos were on the running shirt I wore), and raised about $20k from institutions like Nedbank, ABSA, Bain Capital, Red Rock Ventures, Kobold Watch Company, and Silicon Valley Bank. I raised the rest of the donations from friends, colleagues, family, and other individuals. The day before the marathon, I had met my goal of $26,200 and with several donations from fellow runners and others, I ended up raising over $30,000 by the time I returned from my trip.

The marathon start was set for day three at 11am, and there was lots of excitement and several photo shoots that morning. Several of the stronger runners took off right away, while I fell into a comfortable trot towards the back of the pack. My goal was to reach the finish line and leave the winning to someone else. For the first two hours of the run, the weather was overcast and cold, but not too windy. The only challenge was staying close to the orange flags that had been planted in the ground every 50 meters because the visibility was pretty poor. After about 10 miles, the weather cleared up and we had blue skies and bright sun. As the sun warmed the snow, the running became tougher, and my feet kept slipping and sliding—but I surprised myself by finishing in five hours and 34 minutes and coming in 11th!

 
I know I wasn’t the only one who was proud of having achieved a physical challenge that day. But what I am most excited about is that I was able to use my own, somewhat selfish pursuit to help Room to Read build a new library for the school children in Dutywa. And now, on to the North Pole Marathon…

Frank's campaign has raised over $30,500 and is still accepting donations on our website. Not everyone can run a marathon, but there are many ways you can set up your own fundraising campaign and get involved.