Room to Read Blog

Show and Tell: New York Gala Draws Influential Crowd

This post is part of the ongoing series, Show and Tell, where we bring you photos and stories collected by Room to Read team members on the road. 

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Last week, Room to Read's New York Chapter celebrated in style at the Midtown Loft in Manhattan. Their Spring Gala, designed to raise funds and awareness for our work around the globe, was a resounding success and even drew a few familiar faces, including author and journalist Katie Couric and CNN correspondent Poppy Harlow. The evening included a lively auction and an appearance by Room to Read Founder and Board Co-Chair John Wood.

Here are some photos, courtesy of our New York Chapter Leaders and photographer Jane Bruce:

Learn more about our Chapter Network, and get involved with Room to Read where you live.

Show and Tell: Room to Read Founder Honored at the Tribeca Film Festival

This post is part of the ongoing series, Show and Tell, where we bring you photos and stories collected by Room to Read team members on the road. 

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Last week, Room to Read Founder and Board Co-Chair John Wood hit the red carpet, accepting an award for lifetime achievement at the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards. Recognized for his work with Room to Read, John accepted the hammer-shaped award alongside fellow honorees Jack Dorsey of Twitter, actor Ed Burns (pictured below) and pop superstar Justin Bieber.

Here are some photos from the event:

Learn more about Room to Read's Awards and Recognition.

Show and Tell: Students Sing for a Cause in California

This post is part of the ongoing series, Show and Tell, where we bring you photos and stories collected by Room to Read team members on the road. 

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Last Saturday, a passionate group of students from Milpitas, California put their talents to the test, hosting a live music performance to raise funds for Room to Read.  Dressed in traditional Indian attire, the group performed at Shirdi Sai Parivar Temple, and shared information about Room to Read's work in between songs. After just 2.5 hours, the students had raised nearly US$4,000!

Kim Vallejo, Room to Read's Community and Youth Outreach Associate, attended the event and brought back these photos of the students in action.

Learn more about our Students Helping Students program.

Guest Blog from Dr. Molly Teas: Celebrating Solutions that Work at the Women in the World Summit

The following is a guest post from Dr. Molly Maguire Teas, Senior Advisor for Education for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of South & Central Asian Affairs.

I am writing today from the Women in the World Summit put on by Newsweek & The Daily Beast in New York City. The event has a special significance for me because one of the featured participants is a young Nepali woman named Suma Tharu. Suma is one of the 1,200 young female scholars that my Bureau has supported through our partnership with Room to Read.  10x10, a global action campaign and groundbreaking film, brought Suma to New York for the Women in the World Summit to share her story.

Suma was originally slated to sing a song she wrote on the last day of the event. But, after hearing Suma rehearse, Tina Brown, the Founder of the Women in the World Summit, decided to change the entire agenda and add Suma’s song to the opening of the event as well.

It was a fitting beginning. Suma sang about her life as a Nepali girl who was sold into indentured servitude by her own family. After six years of work, a non-governmental organization rescued her, and Room to Read provided her with a scholarship and the associated tutoring, mentoring and life skills training she needed to enroll in school and reclaim her right to a dignified life. While her song broke the collective hearts of the audience when she sang, “Mother, why did you give birth to a daughter? Did you want to see me suffer?”, her confidence, her clarity about how education has changed her life, and her commitment to make life better for other girls inspired us all.

Meeting Suma before the event began was a joy for me for many reasons. One reason was the simple fact that Suma not only survived her ordeal but is clearly thriving and loving her new life and identity as a “pardeko keti” or school girl. Those who have read my previous DipNote blogs on State.gov know that I began my career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal nearly thirty years ago. At that time, I worked as a science teacher in a remote mountain village school with no electricity, water or latrine. Suma reminded me of the tiny group of girls in my village who managed to stay in school all the way to sixth grade, and who, despite long treks to and from their homes and the almost total lack of books and materials, were so thrilled to be in school that they, like Suma today, positively glowed. It was that small group of girls what also inspired me to commit the rest of my professional life to improving schools and education for girls.

In a most befitting way, Secretary Clinton, in her closing remarks at the Summit, highlighted Suma and the support that State Department’s SCA Bureau provided in changing her life and the lives of many like her. The inspiring image of Suma interacting with the Secretary of State and Oscar-award-winning actress Meryl Streep back stage is a symbol of what is possible when girls and women are empowered. 

The State Department is clearly committed to ensuring that girls’ education programs like Room to Read’s are expanded, and we are shining a spotlight on stories like Suma’s, so that others will witness the power of education and be motivated to support proven solutions that are advancing education for girls around the world.

Learn more about Suma's story and how you can help girls like her across Asia and Africa at www.roomtoread.org/meetsuma

Hitting Another Room to Read Milestone: 10 Million Reasons to Celebrate

Today, in the Tien Giang Province of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, Room to Read celebrated a milestone eleven years in the making.

At a ceremony held at Ngu Hiep 2 Primary School, founder John Wood and the Room to Read Vietnam team delivered a brand new box of books to the school’s library, symbolizing the 10 millionth book donated to our network of over 12,000 libraries in nine developing countries.

The emblematic book, Floating Market, is a Room to Read original title produced through our Local Language Publishing program, which comprise more than half of all books donated to date. It is also a “big book,” of which we’ve printed many in Vietnam—designed to help teachers and librarians facilitate shared reading activities.

The commemorative ceremony was indeed a moment of reflection and pride for our hard-working team, but most of all it was about the children we work with. The day’s festivities included literacy games, story time and a workshop lead by one of our talented illustrators, and attended by a bustling crowd of enthusiastic young readers.

Below are several photos of this morning’s ceremony, which we hope you’ll enjoy. After all, without our passionate community of supporters around the world, none of this would be possible. On behalf of the entire Room to Read family, thank you for joining us in our belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children, and for helping make it a reality.

 

 

Read the full press release related to our 10 millionth book milestone on our website.

Show and Tell: Setting the Stage for Better Literacy Instruction in Bangladesh

This post is part of the ongoing series, Show and Tell, where we bring you photos and stories collected by Room to Read team members on the road. 

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Zaki Hasan, country director for Room to Read Bangladesh provided the photos for today’s Show and Tell, which features a recent round-table discussion on literacy that he and the rest of our Bangladesh team hosted in Dhaka last month. The discussion centered around the teaching of the Bengala language in primary schools and resulted in a list of recommendations from the participants regarding education policy, curriculum, material development, assessment, school culture and teacher training. Dhir Jhingran, Room to Read's chief program officer, attended the event as keynote speaker.

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.

Guest Blog from India: U.S. Ambassador Gets a Closer Look at a Room to Read Library in New Delhi

This is a guest post from Sunisha Ahuja, Room to Read's Country Director for India (pictured).

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The excitement was palpable when we reached the MCD Andrews Ganj Primary School, with dozens of children sitting on the floor of the library, poised to meet their special guest. The room had been buzzing since the day began—after all, a visit from a U.S. Ambassador is not something that happens every day!

“We are very excited that the ambassador has come to visit our school today,” said Abhilasha, one of the library's facilitators. “The children have been preparing for her visit for two days and learning new poems.”

Melanne Verveer, the U.S. Government’s Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, is one of the most high-profile visitors the school has ever seen, and the children were eager to show her what they had learned. Her visit—the result of an emerging partnership between Room to Read and the U.S. government—started off with a traditional Indian welcome, where she was greeted with flowers and a song, sung by the school’s 1st grade class.

After the welcome, one 5^th grader, Sachin, read a book aloud to the ambassador about the power of friendship. It was the guest’s turn next. Selecting an English-language book from the library, Ambassador Verveer read to her hosts, with a student volunteer translating each page into Hindi as she read—an exciting experience for the children who had never before witnessed such an interaction.

“India is going to celebrate Independence Day soon,” Kiran, a 5^th grader, shared with the ambassador. “I am drawing children flying kites!”

“Do you want to be an artist when you grow up,” asked the ambassador. Kiran nodded enthusiastically.

Ambassador Verveer then met with 10 of our Girls' Education program scholars. “I had never imagined that I could become an engineer one day,” said Bharati, who was recently admitted to a graduate computer science program at a college in New Delhi.

“If I wasn’t here today, I would be married,” shared Shweta, another one of the girls, whose aspirations now include starting her own business—a dream she's had since participating in an entrepreneurial skill development workshop through our program.

Ambassador Verveer had one final question for the girls, “What is the biggest change that you notice in yourselves today?”

A few spoke up immediately: “We are confident and able to speak to you,” they shared, adding, “we never imagined that we would meet someone like you.”

More photos from the Ambassador’s visit:

 

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

 

Room to Read Joins “Who’s Who” at International Education Gathering

From April 30 to May 5, the 2011 Comparative International Education Conference (CIES) was held in Montreal, Quebec. The annual conference brings together professionals and academics in the field of international education to share research and exchange best practices. This year, four Room to Read staff members attended to present on the recent work the organization has been doing to promote literacy and reading skills. Headlining Room to Read's participation was Dhir Jhingran, our chief program officer for literacy who is based out of New Delhi, India. Joining him were Amrita Sengupta, South Asia regional literacy program manager; Stacey Warner, global director of literacy; and Peter Cooper, global monitoring and evaluation officer.

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On the second floor of the Fairmont Queen Elisabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal, the halls are filled with people—each bearing a name card and intently combing through an 80-page booklet that contains descriptions of the week’s 500-plus sessions. “Which session are you going to?” asks one woman. “I’m not sure,” her colleague replies. “Maybe the one on early-grade reading in West Africa. Or perhaps the one on evaluating teacher training in Asia. It’s tough…they all look interesting.”

Every year, the Comparative International Education Society (CIES) conference brings together the “who’s who” of the international education community, many of whom present the latest research and best practices from their work around the globe. This year, they included renowned academics, seasoned practitioners, graduate students, and representatives from major international donor agencies.

With no fewer than 50 conference sessions devoted to some aspect of literacy, the momentum in this educational area is growing and the discussions are deepening.  And while it isn’t the first time Room to Read has had a presence at the conference, thanks to our emerging literacy work in Asia and Africa, we are front and center as these discussions are happening. 

Sharing our experiences ranging from designing early-grade literacy instructional materials, to our efforts to launch primary grade literacy programs in Asia and Zambia, to presenting key findings from a qualitative study of our library program in Nepal—we were excited to have each presentation end in a flurry of questions. Most noticeable was the larger conversation taking place this year around the quality of education. In the not-too-distant past, such discussions were not as commonplace because the international education community was mainly concerned with access to educational opportunities. But, in recent years, discussions have shifted firmly towards quality, with literacy at the forefront.

By the end of the five-day conference, we were a little worn out from all of the sessions, but left Montreal eager to apply some of the new ideas and best practices that were shared. Most importantly, we left feeling proud that Room to Read has a seat at the table on how to improve education for children around the world. And it’s a seat we intend to continue occupying.

Learn more about our Literacy Pilot, our Reading Room program, and the way Room to Read is Tracking Results.

Will Ferrell and Friends Raise the Paddles for Literacy

Room to Read went Hollywood a few weeks ago at the home of Will Ferrell and Viveca Paulin-Ferrell who hosted a beautiful event for us at their home in Los Angeles. We felt truly honored as this was the first charity fundraiser the Ferrell's have personally hosted at their house. Viveca along with event co-chairs, Lindsay Berger Sacks and Heidi Saffari, invited their friends and over 200 people turned out for an evening filled with familiar faces to raise money to support Room to Read. Will provided the opening act, Viveca served as auctioneer along with John Wood and with paddles in the air, the event raised close to $300,000 for Room to Read -- enough to support the building of four new schools, nine new libraries, 10,000 children’s books published in local languages and 256 years of girls’ education!

We invite you into the party through this special photo slideshow with guests including Jack Black, Molly Shannon, Zachary Gordon, Andy Richter, Amy Brenneman, Michael Pena and Fred Savage.

 

Special thanks to Will Ferrell and Viveca Paulin-Ferrell and the entire host committee who hope to make this an annual event for the Los Angeles community in order to raise awareness about Room to Read among Hollywood and promote the great work the organization does to change the world through education.