Room to Read Blog

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.

 

Experts Converge for First-Ever Forum on Books for Early Readers

Last week, after many months of planning, field research and interviews, international experts, stakeholders and staff were brought together for Room to Read’s first-ever Early Grade Reader Forum. Over two days, the group discussed, debated and aimed to find consensus in two areas: defining high-quality children’s books for beginning readers and identifying the critical factors that enable these high-quality books to be developed in the countries where Room to Read works.

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The room was abuzz with old acquaintances reuniting, new colleagues meeting for the first time and a general excitement as the start of Room to Read’s Early Grade Reader Forum kicked off last week in downtown San Francisco. The excitement was justified, as this was the very first time this particular group of people had ever been brought together in the same room, in the same city, in the same country or even the same continent.

Included among the 45 participants were international early literacy experts, local language publishers and literacy researchers, who came from 10 different countries to join Room to Read stakeholders and staff for a two-day summit to discuss high-quality children’s books for beginning readers in developing countries.

The seed idea for the meeting was planted last year; Room to Read had just concluded an assessment of the availability of books at varying reading levels in the local marketplace in several of our countries. What we found was discouraging, and it became quite clear that there was a tremendous void in the development and production of books in Asia and Africa for children who are just learning how to read.

So when Room to Read Advisory Board Member, Dr. Luis Crouch, challenged the organization to put together best practices around developing high-quality children’s books for beginning readers, in true Room to Read style, our Local Language Publishing, Reading Room and Literacy program teams came together and the result was Room to Read’s first-ever Early Grade Reader Forum.

Ms. Oud Saysena came all the way from Vientiane, Laos hoping to gain a better understanding of guidelines for creating high-quality beginning reader books in her home country. She owns one of the very first private publishing companies in Laos, which just received government approval to operate last year. She also owns and operates Happy Moon Children’s Bookstore, and admits that in Laos, there is “no expertise or understanding of how to write books for beginning readers. There are no standards or local experts who can give advice or comment on what is good and the best quality for early readers.”

Local language publishers, including Ms. Saysena, participated in interactive panel discussions and breakout groups to brainstorm best practices, and many will be returning to their countries with clear steps to help them develop high quality beginning reader books—whether it’s creating a mentoring system to build the capacity of their writers and illustrators or looking at opportunities to co-publish titles with fellow publishing houses. It’s a promising start.

At the conclusion of the forum there was consensus on some of the issues, but also more questions to spur continued debate and creative solutions. Ultimately, as one expert reflected, “This forum created a sense of everyone wanting to pitch in and create a really authentic community. We’re coming from a deep place in our hearts and something in our personal histories to make it better for the children.”

Learn more about our Local Language Publishing program.

Room to Read Volunteers Write a New Chapter In Fundraising for Education

Last week, more than 50 Room to Read chapter volunteers from around the globe gathered with Room to Read staff at our annual Chapter Leadership Conference. The conference brought together chapter leaders from as far away as Australia, Japan and Zurich and as close as San Francisco. In all, nine different countries were represented and 20 U.S. cities!

 

Room to Read is very proud of our chapter network comprised of long-term volunteers who have made a commitment to promote Room to Read within their networks and communities. Each year, many chapter leaders attend the Chapter Leadership Conference to receive valuable training and updates about the work Room to Read is doing. Plus, there are plenty of fun times created when you fill a room with passionate people who share the same mission! The enthusiasm of this incredible group of volunteers is contagious, evidenced by the fact that chapters last year raised over US$12 million, which is roughly one-third of Room to Read's operating budget.

 

Mihiri Udabage has been volunteering with Room to Read's Sydney Chapter since 2008 and was very involved in the planning and coordination of the chapter's wine gala held on March 4, 2011. In this guest blog, she reveals her motivation for her dedication to Room to Read.

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As I head to the door to go to volunteer at the Room to Read Wine Gala in Sydney, I am met with protests from my children, aged 8 and 6: “Don’t go, Mummy—stay home!” “I have to go,” I counter. “We have to make sure lots of children get to go to school, just like you do, right?” 

Absolutely right. With the world holding more than 796 million illiterate people in the world and 98% of them living in developing countries, there is much work to be done. 

Tonight’s event is about inviting investors to become a part of the global movement to see illiteracy banished. As John Wood, Room to Read Founder, delivers his presentation on behalf of the millions of children this organization has yet to serve, he’s firing on optimism. Optimism fueled by seeing girls like Merina, 15, from Nepal, saved from a life as an indentured servant and returned to a childhood she was taken from, and of the plan that will see hundreds more girls like her returned to school where they belong. Optimism incited by 11-year-old Inkham from Laos, whose scholarship from Room to Read allows her to read to her parents, both mute, and also to her brothers and adored baby sister. Optimism for the five million children Room to Read has served to date, and the five million more who are hoping that Room to Read comes to their community. 

Later in the night, after the auction hammer slams repeatedly, the total amount raised is announced. More than US$892,000 has been donated this one night in Sydney, thousands of kilometers from where it will eventually land. It will provide schools, libraries, girls’ education, books, bikes, bags and uniforms. It will fund the NGO workers who will partner with Room to Read to ensure that girls are attending school and maintaining their studies so they will pass to the next grade.

I picture one of the girls who will benefit from the 400 years of girls’ education funded this night. How one morning soon, she will braid her hair, exchange her worn house dress for a crisp uniform, hop on the new bike parked outside her home and pedal to a place where she is no longer defined as the poorest girl, living in a small hut, but where she is a student, a scholar, tomorrow’s teacher/engineer/author/artist.

I see her raising her hand in class to have her voice heard. 
I see her writing a poem about the mother she adores.
I see her pointing to the places on the atlas that she will travel to one day.  
I see her stopping by the library on her way home—maybe one of the 30 new libraries donated tonight by friends in Sydney she has never met. 
I see her step inside this cool haven and pass her hands across the hundreds of books that will line the shelves, mesmerized by the bright covers and overwhelmed for choice.  
I see her mother welcome her home, proud of this girl who does what her mother can’t.

As the guests leave, they are flushed with excitement, happy to have been a part of something wonderful. They are no longer on the outside looking in, they are on the inside looking out and will go home and tell their friends about the incredible work that Room to Read is doing. Many will call in the coming weeks wanting to know more, do more. We will be so happy to take their call. They thank us. We cannot thank them enough. They walked in as guests; they leave as heroes.

Our team is tired but happy. They have worked hours upon voluntary hours, months upon months, to make this night a success. As I return home after midnight, and lean over my sleeping son to kiss his cheek, he half wakes to ask “Mummy, did the children go to school tonight?”  I smile and whisper to him, “Yes baby, lots and lots and lots of children got to go to school tonight.”

To learn more about Room to Read’s growing network of volunteer chapters and upcoming events, visit our website.

 

 

More from New York: Another Side of the Clinton Global Initiative

Cory Heyman, Room to Read Strategic Advisor for the Girls' Education and Monitoring and Evaluation programs, joined John Wood at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) this week in New York. In his guest blog, Cory shares an off-stage glimpse of CGI.

 

The halls of the Sheraton Towers in New York City are alive this week with international dignitaries, corporate CEOs and NGO leaders. Many people have come to declare new commitments that their organizations are making to respond to some of the most challenging issues in the world today. It was inspiring to hear President Arroyo announce Room to Read’s new commitment to improve educational opportunities for one million girls and one million boys over the next two years.

 

The buzz around the conference is that Room to Read is an organization to watch. We take our commitments seriously—as ambitious as they are—and we follow through with quality programming. That John was joined on stage for the announcement by Robert Diamond, president of Barclays Capital PLC, and Noa Meyer, vice president of Goldman Sachs, further demonstrates the credibility that Room to Read has earned with some of the world’s most savvy investors.

 

What most people don’t know, though, is that there is another side of CGI. After major commitments are announced and spotlights dim, CGI members continue to sit together in thematic breakout sessions to discuss the most pressing challenges as well as new opportunities for collaboration. One of the themes that CGI has identified as an ongoing global challenge is economic empowerment for girls and women.

 

Room to Read has been an active partner in the Action Network called Focus on Girls: From Education to Economic Empowerment. Over the past few months, we have convened teleconferences to discuss ways in which organizations can work together to improve gender equality in access to education. What was clear early on is that all Subgroup members share the belief that adolescence is a critical time in girls’ lives for making important decisions about their future. Supporting girls to stay in school and complete secondary education is the best way to improve their life chances.

 

In Tuesday’s breakout session with the full Action Network, I shared some of the ideas that came out of the Secondary Education Subgroup to date. The first was to launch a study about the experiences of economically challenged girls who complete secondary school and continue to college or university. Organizations such as Room to Read have seen many girls overcome the odds not only to complete secondary school but also to receive support to enter college. Their stories could inspire many other girls at critical stages of their own education. A collaborative study could help us learn more about steps for continuing educational success.

 

Another key point of discussion, shared by the other two Action Network subgroups as well, was the need and desire to share the materials they develop to support girls’ education. All organizations can benefit from seeing each others’ materials and making use of the best resources available. The end result is that the entire Action Network decided to pursue a broader collaboration and work to create a website where a range of program materials for adolescent girls can be shared. Stay tuned for updates as these activities unfold.

 

Read more about our Girls’ Education program on our website.

John Wood Blogs from the Clinton Global Initiative & Makes Our Next Bold Commitment

It was definitely one of those “pinch me” moments -- standing on stage at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York with Robert Diamond, Barclays Capital PLC president,and Noa Meyer, vice-president of Goldman Sachs, as former Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, announced our major commitment which will affect the lives of millions of children in Africa and Asia. Minutes later, Nicholas Kristof  praised Room to Read’s work in a panel discussion about girls’ education. When it rains it pours, and on this last day of summer in New York, we’re hoping for a downpour!

Our commitment: over the next two years, Room to Read will establish 4,000 additional libraries, improve school infrastructure, train teachers on library and reading skills, pilot literacy initiatives among primary school children, and publish 370 new local language titles, so that close to one million girls and one million boys will have enhanced educational resources.

Additionally, Room to Read will equip thousands of girls with life skills and support to ensure their completion of secondary school. These ambitious goals will be accomplished through the hard work of our country teams and the support of key partnerships with Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, the U.S. State Department, CLSA Asia Pacific as well as individual funders.

Though our commitment was made before an audience of some of the world’s most influential business, political and philanthropic leaders, it was, more importantly, a promise made to millions of children in Africa and Asia awaiting the opportunity to learn to read and write. And it’s a promise we intend to keep – in a big way!

Three years ago, Room to Read co-founder and CEO, Erin Ganju, and I made another bold promise on this CGI stage: to double the impact of our work by establishing a total of 10,000 libraries and printing 3.5 million copies of local language children’s books by end the of 2010. In March of this year, I proudly cut the ribbon at the opening of our 10,000th library. These libraries are filled with colorful and culturally rich children’s books published by Room to Read, and at last count, the total number of books printed surpassed 4.3 million. When Room to Read promises, we deliver! Our supporters expect it, and millions of children are counting on it.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Room to Read’s 10th anniversary than by rallying our global network of supporters to help us take the next giant step into creating a world where children, no matter where they’re born and no matter what their gender, can enjoy the myriad of benefits of education.

I’ll be spending the next couple of days at CGI shaking hands, doling out my business cards and making sure Room to Read becomes top of mind in discussions around education in Asia and Africa.  The world is ripe for action-oriented optimists, and we’re thrilled and extremely proud to be leading the charge to close the gender gap in global education.

For more information about the CGI announcement, read our recent press release.

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.