Room to Read Blog

Guest Blog from CEO Erin Ganju: A Mother's Day Tribute

It is hard to argue that gender disparity in education no longer exists when one realizes that of the 793 million illiterate people in the world, two-thirds are female. Likewise, it would be difficult to challenge the importance of providing girls with an education, as we know that educating females is the most powerful and effective way to address global poverty. Educated mothers are more likely to educate their own children—ending the cycle of illiteracy in one generation. What is perhaps less definitive is how best to tackle this issue. With many barriers facing girls in the developing world that go far beyond simple economics, including cultural bias, tradition and safety concerns, the answer is admittedly not simple. Yet, for many areas in the world, one of the answers may lie in the synergy of parental support and the support of women in their families and communities.

Parental involvement plays a paramount role in shaping girls' expectations for themselves and deciding how long they will remain in school. As CEO of Room to Read, I have had the great fortune of meeting many parents during my travels. While of varying cultures, a common thread unites them all—a strong commitment to supporting their daughters' education. Even when the prevailing culture may not place a high value to girls' education, and despite the fact that they may not have been personally afforded such opportunities when they were young, many parents still remain steadfastly committed to the dream of having their daughters receive a quality education, and seeing them graduate from secondary school and perhaps even attending a university.

In Andhra Pradesh, India, a mother of one of our Girls' Education participants remarked, "I can now dream of my only daughter going for higher studies, getting a job and earning her own money. She won't have to live like us." In Siem Reap, Cambodia, a mother shared with me, "I am illiterate. I don't want her to have the same fate. I don't have an inheritance for her. I know only that knowledge will be a priceless and lifelong gift for her."

Parents' commitment to their daughter's education may also be reflected in other ways. I have visited some of the homes of our Girls' Education students, and been inspired to meet parents who have shown their commitment by utilizing the very best space in their small family home to create a study area. Additionally, despite the challenge of long work hours and great distances to their daughters' schools, 88 percent of parents and guardians find a way to attend parent workshops we offer.

It must be recognized, however, that in many countries, the sphere of parental influence is often extended to others, most often women. Grandmothers and aunts play an important role in ensuring that girls remain in school. I met a grandmother in Zambia who donated her time and energy to volunteering at the local school. In Vietnam, one elderly grandmother noted about her granddaughter Thu, "I cook for her so she can save time to concentrate on her studies. I don't want her to get married soon. I want her to study to get a good job first." This level of devotion is also reflected in the words of an aunt from Laos who remarked upon hearing that her niece would be part of our Girls' Education program, "When I heard Inkham was selected by Room to Read, I couldn't sleep. I felt as if I had won a kilogram of gold."

As another extension to familial influence, other women outside the family can serve as role models in the lives of young girls. Room to Read has invested in "social mobilizers," a term we use for women in the community that work directly with our Girls' Education students to serve as a personal advocate on their path to graduation from secondary school. This role may take many forms. In Bangladesh, it may include advocating against early marriage so that girls can remain in school longer. In Zambia, it may include exploring an attendance issue that has resulted because the walk to school may be too dangerous or far. As members of the community themselves, our social mobilizers understand the pressures that these girls face and can serve to exemplify the educated, empowered women they may become one day.

As a mother of a six-year-old daughter, I have been humbled to witness the extraordinary lengths taken by parents and women in the communities around the world to ensure a girl's education, despite the odds. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother's secret hope outlives them all." On this Mother's Day, I salute not only dedicated mothers everywhere, but all women who recognize that a mother's hope starts with education and devote a part of themselves every day to ensure this for the girls in their lives and communities.

This blog post was adapted from A Mother's Day Tribute: The Role of Women and Parenting in Girls' Education Around the World, originally published by The Huffington Post on May 10, 2012.

Guest Blog from CEO Erin Ganju: A Call for Advocacy on International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on March 8, not only provides an opportunity for all women to celebrate the progress we have made, but also a moment to stop and reflect on how we may ensure that the next generation of women are empowered to reach their full potential.

Despite the substantial advancements in many countries, some very sobering statistics remain. Of the 793 million illiterate people in the world, two-thirds are female. And although there has been a worldwide increase in the enrollment of girls in primary schools, there remains a substantial gender gap at the secondary level. This is particularly true in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where—according to a World Development Report—there were only 66 female tertiary students for every 100 male students.

It is widely known that educating girls is one of the most powerful and effective ways to address global poverty, but the barriers to education facing girls in the developing world go far beyond simple economics. Girls are often tapped to help in the home, including several hours of housework and sibling care before and after school, and parents may be reluctant to allow their daughters to trek the lengthy distances to school. Cultural bias only compounds these issues.

One of the most powerful ways to support girls to overcome these barriers is by acting as advocates. At Room to Read, our advocacy efforts include enlisting family support, engaging with governments and communities, and providing life skills workshops for girls. We also employ social mobilizers, women who serve as role models and counselors, and help girls navigate their individual journeys.

The power of advocacy is clear in stories like that of Suma Tharu, one of our Girls' Education scholars who was invited to perform at this week's Women in the World Summit, hosted by The Daily Beast and Newsweek in New York City. Such an invitation would no doubt have been unimaginable to Suma as a young girl trapped as an indentured servant in Nepal’s illegal Kamlari system, but today she stands as a thriving example of what a quality education and a lot of determination can yield. At 19, Suma is expected to complete secondary school in March 2014, and has plans to become an advocate herself.

Despite all the challenges that Suma has faced, her thoughts are focused on the needs of other girls. At this week’s summit, Suma will share with the world a song she wrote about the challenges faced by girls in the Kamlari system—giving a voice to a community whose struggles are often overlooked. We first heard Suma's song when she shared it with the producers of 10x10, a feature film and social action campaign aimed at highlighting the stories of 10 girls from 10 countries as they struggle to earn an education. When she returns to Nepal, Suma plans to become a health teacher, so that she may educate and empower other young girls.

The need for advocacy is not limited to girls and women in developing countries.  In 1950, only one-third of working-age women in America had a paid job, a figure that has now been doubled. Despite this incredible advancement however, women still represent less than 15 percent of corporate executives and board members at top companies. More alarmingly, only three percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

Although there are undoubtedly numerous contributory factors inherent in such inequalities, a recent study revealed that one of the key issues for women as they seek to advance in business is a lack of senior executives who would advocate for them; someone who could help navigate the internal politics in companies. Men were much more likely to have such an advocate to help guide and facilitate their advancement.

So on International Women’s Day, let us all look toward ways to advocate for girls and women—those in our personal lives, professional networks or in the world at large. Perhaps Suma’s courage can guide and inspire us, an extraordinary example that no matter what challenges we may be faced with, there may still be room in our lives to advocate for another.

Watch the live stream of Suma's performance in New York today at 6:30 PM EST or Saturday, March 10 at 11:00 AM EST, and find out how you can support girls like her across the developing world on our website.

This blog post was adapted from International Women's Day: Advancing the Next Generation of Gals, originally published by the Huffington Post on March 8, 2012.

Guest Blog from Vietnam: CEO Erin Ganju Celebrates Reading Day in Can Tho Province

“Do you like to read?” asked the teacher.  “Yes!” shouted the students.

“Who wants to read now?” Hands darted up and children excitedly ran to the three corners of the school yard set up with varying reading related activities.

Recently, I had the great fortune of attending Tan Thanh Primary School’s summer Reading Day in the Can Tho Province of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. The school provides instruction for 1st through 5th grade students, and was selected to participate in Room to Read’s library program in 2008.

Our Room to Read Country Director in Vietnam, Mr. Tien Phong Le, explained that Reading Day was initiated last year as a way to engage students in reading during the summer break, providing a fun and creative way to reinforce the importance of reading on a regular basis. The event immediately proved to be very popular among the students.

Last year, Room to Read was actively involved in planning the event, but this summer the school wholeheartedly embraced Reading Day, and organized everything themselves.

About 125 students attended this year, and participated in three main activities: free reading, in which children independently engage with a wide variety of books; storytelling, in which teachers dynamically read aloud and pose questions about the stories; and drawing, in which children enjoy illustrating parts of their favorite books. The school yard was buzzing with activity as students eagerly ran from one activity to the next—hurrying so as not to miss anything.

As part of my participation in Reading Day, I sat and read quietly with some of the students for a while. Then, one girl very sweetly took it upon herself to read one of her favorite stories aloud to me in Vietnamese—perhaps she thought that would help me understand the Vietnamese book better!

Next, I offered to “read” a story to the students near me, which I did by making up a story from the pictures in a book (since all the books were in Vietnamese). Our Room to Read Local Language Publishing Program Officer, Ms. Quynh Le, kindly assisted me by translating my story for the children. I am happy to report that my “spur of the moment” story received more than a few giggles, even from my own five-year-old daughter, Julia, who was traveling with me and happily joined in the Reading Day festivities.

At the end of the day, each student was rewarded with a new notebook for their attendance. A few lucky students earned “Excellent Participation Awards” and received additional notebooks, bookmarks and pens. It was interesting to note that the ratio of girls to boys receiving awards was about 4:1, although I’m not sure if that indicates that the girls are better at reading or participating!

We left Tan Thanh Primary School with fond memories of our morning spent in celebration of reading. Julia proclaimed that she would happily attend a similar event at her own school back home, reminding me yet again of the universal love of reading shared by children everywhere…and their right to experience it.

Learn more about our work in Vietnam.

A Picture Book is Worth a Thousand Words: CEO Erin Ganju Responds to The New York Times

We’ve long dreamt about the day the front page of The New York Times runs a story on children’s books (read it here: Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children).  Children’s books are what we live and breathe at Room to Read because of what they contribute to the development of a child’s literacy and learning skills.  It’s what we believe has the power to change the world and entire generations of communities living in poverty, particularly in the developing world.

Unfortunately, The New York Times’ story wasn’t exactly what we had envisioned, as it centered on the loss of retail sales of picture books.  In a down economy, that’s not surprising. What was surprising is that the decline in sales isn’t because children are no longer drawn to colorfully illustrated tomes; rather because parents are no longer recognizing the value picture books have in catalyzing their children’s literacy skills development.

Apparently, parents have begun pressing their kindergartners and first-graders to leave the picture books behind and move on to more text-heavy “chapter books.” One children’s book publisher noted a 35 percent drop in the number of picture books published in the last few years. The primary reason, according to those in the industry, is pressure from parents who are very mindful of increasingly rigorous standardized testing in schools.

We’ve actually seen the opposite hold true in developing nations, where picture books (or story books) remain a crucial tool in laying a solid foundation for literacy and life-long learning among children. In places like Sri Lanka, South Africa and other countries where Room to Read works, many children come from largely oral storytelling traditions and the shift to the written word is a difficult transition. Many of these children have never been read to aloud, and they find it difficult to relate the “spoken” word to the “written” word.

Picture books help bridge this gap because they give children the opportunity to explore, discover, learn, and imagine through stories and characters. Books inform and transfer knowledge, and are critical to the development of a child’s reading skills -- including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Picture books kick-start that journey because they combine visual and verbal narratives, often presenting imagery from children’s everyday lives which helps them connect life experiences to the pictures, information, events, and text. Even more, by discussing what they see in story books, children ask questions  -- which also helps develop their speaking skills, a key component of literacy. 

Literacy experts quoted in the news article were quick to point out that picture books are not for dummies, and they praise the genre for helping develop a child’s critical thinking skills. As a mother of a four-and-a-half-year-old, I couldn’t agree more.

My daughter Julia loves to use picture books as the basis of inspiration for story time with her captivated audience of stuffed animals. We’ll make a day of going to the library next to the park, and she will spend as much time selecting her next 10-15 books for the week as she does running around the playground. She loves books with lots of pictures because it gives her a sense of independence to “read” the story through the pictures. Now, at bedtime, Julia often wants to read me a story, and it’s my greatest joy to see her develop an enjoyment of reading -- reading is not a task or something she has to do, but something she does for play. And that’s key because the path to creating lifelong, independent readers starts when children see reading as fun and pleasurable on their own.

At Room to Read we’re committed to education, and so obviously, it’s a wonderful thing that children are able to read chapter books at an early age. But if you focus on just the skills part and prematurely force children to get to a certain level, it may be at the cost of developing good habits of reading. So we caution well-intentioned parents against hurrying to clear their kids’ bookshelf of story books, because in doing so, you’re clearing away the potential for a connection to books that children will cherish their entire lives. Instead, let’s work to develop a generation of independent readers who love to read, and read to learn.

Read more about our Local Language Publishing program on our website.

 

Guest blog from CEO Erin Ganju: Celebrate International Literacy Day

In 1965, UNESCO designated September 8 as International Literacy Day in an effort to highlight the importance of universal literacy to individuals, communities and societies. In honor of International Literacy Day, Room to Read CEO Erin Ganju reflects on what made her dedicate her career to promoting literacy in the developing world.

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As I prepare to send my daughter back to school this fall, I am reminded that each evening as I tuck her into bed after a day filled with ABC’s and 123’s, there will be 72 million children waking up on the other side of the world that will not go to school and never open a book -- putting them on the fast track to joining the 776 million adults in the world who lack basic literacy skills. It’s a cycle that needs to be broken.

I was inspired to devote my career to increasing educational opportunities for children in the developing world after my work in the private sector took me to Vietnam. At the time, Vietnam was just opening up to the world and to direct foreign investment, and I was impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit I saw in the Vietnamese people to pull themselves out of poverty. I was also disheartened when I saw how many people lacked the basic skills or education to really do so. My company was hiring a workforce to operate major factories, and the majority of the workforce had barely ever used a telephone, much less a computer.

Despite significant strides made in recent years, literacy remains an elusive target for too many. One in five adults worldwide remains unable to read and write, despite education having been specifically identified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

International Literacy Day is meant to shed light on the irrefutable link between literacy and self-empowerment. The benefits of basic literacy sweep through entire communities, increasing civic participation, life expectancy, and wages along the way.

On September 8 this year, exercise your right to read. Visit your local library, read a bedtime story to your kids, or donate that box of books you’ve been meaning to give to your local Goodwill.  Remember how lucky we are to live in a society that is able to provide our children with a quality primary education, and take a moment to appreciate what it would be like to have grown up on the other side of that statistic. I know I will.

Learn more about what Room to Read is doing around International Literacy Day and how you can help us promote it. Please also read more about Room to Read's literacy focus in our strategic vision.

A Precious 30 Minutes for the Children of Vietnam

It was years in the making for Room to Read Vietnam. Back and forth with the various levels of education officials. Countless meetings, schools visits, negotiations, extensive research, and reams of paperwork. But finally, here they were, Room to Read Vietnam’s Program Director, Thuy Nguyen, and the Vice-Director of the Department of Education and Training of Vinh Long province, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which would having lasting effects on the children and families in their community.

What was at stake was 30 minutes of reading time every week for over 3,700 primary school children in Vinh Long, one of five provinces along the Mekong Delta where Room to Read has programs. Thirty minutes a week to put away all other school work and just read, for the pure enjoyment of it.

Erin Ganju, Room to Read's Co-founder and CEO, fortuitously happened to be in Vietnam at the time of the MOU signing, which made the elaborate ceremony -- replete with multiple speeches and presentations -- even more special to the Vietnam staff. Our local teams cheered when the signatures on the document dried and the “reading period” program was officially launched.

The goal of a “reading period” is to improve the reading skills of primary school children, but to do it in a way that will help kids associate reading with fun. Our teams will work closely with 255 teachers to help them come up with creative ideas for reading period activities, including reading games like “guess what happens next” or “what if," play-writing and drawing pictures of story characters.

The "reading periods" will initially take place in 13 of our libraries every other week, but eventually the program will grow to weekly periods. We know that schools in other districts and provinces are eager to sign onto the program, and once this pilot program proves successful, we're looking forward to sharing!

Following the launch ceremony, our Vietnam team set the wheels in motion to get teachers trained, materials ordered and children on their way to reading. The staff has had many years to prepare for this moment, and they didn’t want to delay the program progress any longer. As the "reading period" proposal states, “We believe that dedicated reading periods in schools will set us on the path to reach our common dream of a New Generation of Young Readers.”

To date, Room to Read has established 460 Reading Rooms in six provinces of Vietnam. To read more about our work in Vietnam and our Reading Room program, please visit our website.

Guest Blog from CEO Erin Ganju: My Favorite Week

This week is our annual Country Management Conference, a time when our management teams from around the world gather to discuss strategies and plan for the following year.  Erin Ganju, our CEO, submitted this guest blog following the opening of this year's conference in Kathmandu, Nepal.

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This is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. Every summer, the management teams from each of Room to Read’s offices, from San Francisco to Bangladesh, converge for our Country Management Conference (CMC). It’s a week that is both exhausting and exhilarating, as we spend countless hours sharing best practices, learning about challenges and successes, and setting the strategic direction for the organization for years to come. In the past, we’ve rotated the location of the conference to a different Room to Read country in order of the year our country offices were established. This year we made an exception to our own rule and brought the CMC back to Nepal in honor of Room to Read’s 10-year Anniversary.

As we sit and discuss our first decade and make plans for our second, I sometimes find myself pondering how we got here -– building an organization that defends the global right for every child to grow up with a quality education, and, at the same time, empowering leadership in each country to have the flexibility to contextualize how we deliver our programs.  It is a complex balancing act, but one that has resulted in depth and richness in our programming.

When I look around the room, I get my answer -– for around me is a melting pot of incredible personal perseverance and commitment to providing education to children now and in the future. It is fascinating to hear my colleagues discuss how we can enhance our library program, launch literacy pilots, improve government partnerships or conduct life skills workshops for our girl scholars through the lens of the real in-country challenges they face and the solutions they develop on the front lines.

Dinesh Shrestha, Room to Read's Co-Founder and Regional Director of Human Resources and Administration in Asia, embodies the essence of what Room to Read has achieved in the past ten years. He has demonstrated and helped develop our model of local leadership, one of the cornerstones of our success. Like Dinesh, each country director brings a personal story that reveals the heart of what drives them to work so hard for educational opportunities for children. For example, Kall Kann, our country director in Cambodia, grew up separated from his family as a young teenager due to the Khmer Rouge and had to struggle himself to get an education. Wiseman Ngwata, our regional director in Africa, has devoted more than 30 years to ensure that the quality of the education in classrooms meets the dream of parents to have their children be able to read and write. Sunisha Ahuja, our country director in India, has been a role model for women breaking through the glass ceiling and showing generations of girls in our Girls’ Education program that it is possible for women to play a significant leadership role. And Chris Mothupi, our country director in South Africa, who experienced the denigration of apartheid South Africa (and blogged about it last week), yet was determined to complete his education and share that gift with generations of children.

Each person at our conference this week brings a compelling story to the table and each story is very different from the person sitting next to them. And yet, they all share one quality -- a personal commitment to our mission of bringing education to children in the developing world. After a week of long hours and seemingly endless meetings, we will all return to our home offices, energized and ready to take the next step in Room to Read’s success. Millions of children are counting on us, and with the diverse and talented team we have in place, I’m confident we will fulfill, and likely exceed, our commitment.

Read more about our Leadership team.

 

Guest Blog from CEO Erin Ganju: Through the Eyes of a Child

This guest blog is from Erin Ganju, Room to Read’s CEO, who is currently traveling through Asia with her daughter and mother to visit several Room to Read's offices and educational projects.  This entry is from Vietnam, where Room to Read has been working since 2001 and was in fact, the country that brought Erin to Room to Read.  After living in Ho Chi Minh City for more than two years, Erin developed a passion for the development of Vietnam and managed the launch of Room to Read in Vietnam, which marked Room to Read's first operation outside of Nepal.

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Seeing your work through the eyes of your child can be an invaluable lesson in perspective. Last week, my four-and-a-half year-old daughter, Julia, joined me for her first visit to a Room to Read library, and as we drove up to Long Hoa Primary School in Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, she yelled out, “Yeah, Room to Read!” while pumping her hands in the air. Her enthusiasm was contagious and stirred up mine -- albeit a little less vocally.

As the van stopped in front of the school gates, we could see children lined up with flowers for us, along with the mandatory Vietnamese drum corps ready to alert the entire neighborhood that we had arrived. Our hands filled with flowers, we were then treated to a dance routine by the children and songs by the teachers about the value of education. I’ve had the honor of being part of these elaborate welcoming ceremonies dozens of times, but to see the twinkle in Julia’s eyes and her excited clapping at the end of each performance reminded me how special these events really are.

We were here attending one of Room to Read’s "Reading Summer Camps" in Vietnam, a new program designed by our Vietnam library team. The camps are designed to gently ease kids back to school for a few hours each day during the summer with a mixture of reading skill practice and fun activities. We spent a wonderful couple of hours exchanging drawings with some kids, reading aloud to a group of children in the library and then having them do the same for us, and teaching each other songs. The Itsy Bitsy Spider was a big hit! 

When I later asked Julia what she thought of the school and how it differed from her school in San Francisco, she replied, “Those girls dancing got to wear make-up to school.” (Yes, I have a four-and-a-half year-old going on sixteen.) Then she said, “They sure do have fun in school here.” I explained how it was summer camp, and that actual school was much more serious.

I then realized that Julia and I didn’t see the school in the same way. I walk into schools and think about how much more we need to do and all the things that can be improved. But for Julia, it was not about the physical environment, but the experience. And I was excited to think that, like Julia, maybe these students in Vietnam were returning home every day telling their parents, siblings and neighbors that school is fun and that they can’t wait to go back. From the perspective of a child (and her mother), that is success and something to celebrate!

To learn more about our programs in Vietnam, click here. 

Room to Read Unveils Vision for Our Future

For those of you on our email newsletter list, this message hit your inbox today.  But in keeping with our efforts to communicate our work to as many of our supporters as possible, we are cross-posting this message on our blog to make sure you are up-to-date on our exciting plans for Room to Read's second decade.

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Dear Friends:

It’s hard to believe that this year Room to Read celebrates its ten year anniversary!

Last year, knowing we were about to mark year ten, we embarked on a global strategic planning process to chart the roadmap for our second decade and to reflect on our strengths and key learning’s from the past ten years. It was a collaborative and comprehensive process that involved input from our country, regional and global offices, our advisory and board of directors, our donors, and experts in the field of international education.

We are excited to share with you the outcome of that process -– our vision for our second decade that focuses our mission and our work in two key areas: literacy and gender equality in education.  In the past ten years, we have built and scaled an organization that is working with thousands of communities across nine countries to provide enhanced learning opportunities for millions of children in Asia and Africa. Our future goal is more ambitious than ever: to enable more than 10 million children in over a dozen developing world countries to maximize their educational experiences by 2015.

We’ll accomplish this through evolving our programs to better focus them on developing literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and supporting girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond.  As we like to say, “this is an evolution, not a revolution” for our already successful programs; we will continue to implement our library, school, and local language books programs as well as support girls’ education but now these programs will have even more defined goals and outcomes.  We encourage you to read more about it in our plan Envisioning Our Future: A Roadmap for Learning.

Room to Read has always believed that “World Change Starts with Educated Children” and that every child has the right to a quality education in order to reach their full potential. We are confident our strategic vision outlines a clear roadmap to continue our progress towards this goal. We are in awe of all that we have achieved together and excited about the future direction for the organization. We hope you are as well and that you will continue on this journey with us.

Onward and Upward,

 

John Wood & Erin Ganju

Download Envisioning Our Future: A Roadmap for Learning here.

To sign up for our quarterly eNewsletter, click here. 

To read the complete Q1 2010 eNewsletter, click here.

A Special Holiday Message from Erin Ganju, CEO (and video!)

Dear friends,

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.