Room to Read Blog

Spread the Word: Room to Read Celebrates our "Year of Tens"

We know you keep hearing from us about our "Year of Tens" and our recent opening of our 10,000th library...but we can't control our excitement!

Thanks to our very special pro-bono video team (www.ThePositiveStory.com), we were able to capture the celebration at the ribbon-cutting in Nepal where we opened our 10,000th library and finished our Trek to 10,000.  Have a look!

You can also see all the highlights -- photos, blogs, tweets and more at www.roomtoread.org/yearoftens.

Please help us spread the word about our amazing accomplishments -- post, re-tweet, like, stumble, digg...whatever you need to do to share the good news.

Thank you, as always, for your support!

Trek to 10,000: Day 6 - Cutting the Ribbon on our 10,000th Library!

 

POKHARA: At Room to Read, we talk frequently about milestones because we’re committed to a performance-driven culture.  Today is a very momentous and proud day in our history as we celebrate another milestone: the opening of our 10,000th library!

I wish you could have been here to witness the festivities that took place at the Shree Janakalyan Secondary School, which is close to Pokhara and in the shadows of the majestic Annapurna Mountain range.  Over 1,000 people turned up to celebrate the opening of the new 175 square foot free-standing library building, including the 400+ students who will now have access, six hours per day, to their new collection of brightly-colored children’s books, games, puzzles, posters, and many other educational tools designed to help make this library a living, breathing ecosystem full of children experiencing the joy of reading and learning.

This achievement was not just an achievement for me but it was an achievement for all of us -– for our staff that has worked tirelessly over these past ten years to enable us to reach this point, for our partners who work with us locally in this critical mission, and for our investors and fund-raising chapter members worldwide who have helped us to create a global movement to bring change to the world through education.  I am not sure if you can see this in the photo posted above but this library is dedicated to all of YOU!  The following is the language on the plaque that welcomes children into the library:

Room to Read's 10,000th library is dedicated to the millions of children who now enjoy reading books every day thanks to the well-stocked libraries in their villages.  What began in Nepal 10 years ago has now become a global network of libraries, made possible by a dedicated partnership between the community, Room to Read and its committed employees and chapter leaders, and the many generous investors who believe strongly that World Change Starts with Educated Children.

This “Trek to 10,000” that we’ve all taken part in over the past week has indeed brought us full circle, but it also starts a new chapter in our story.  While it started as my story at the Shree Chandradoya High School in Bahundanda -- where, along with my father, I delivered 3,000 donated English-language books via a “donkey train” -– is now a story about how all of us together have cut the ribbon for our 10,000th library and the difference we’ll make in the years ahead.   

Speaking of the years ahead, this morning’s ceremony also affirmed Room to Read’s commitment to literacy and gender equality in education for our future with the goal of reaching ten million children by 2015.  And we’re definitely on track to get there!  We’re currently opening, on average, 6 libraries a day in the developing world -– that’s 3,000 kids every day who gain access to a library with the tools that will help them become independent readers. 

It’s been amazing ten years and our “year of tens” has only just begun.  We’ve already opened our 1,000th school, and soon, we’ll be supporting our 10,000th girl in our Girls’ Education program!

Thanks for joining with us on this Trek to 10,000.  We hope you’ll continue trekking with us as we reach even higher.

-- John

Click here to read our News Release about the tenth anniversary, and 10,000th library.

For tweets, photos, videos and much more from the 10th anniversary trek, go to www.roomtoread.org/trektotenthousand.

Guest blog by John Wood: Lucky Number Ten

In January 2000, an exciting piece of news showed up in my mailbox in San Francisco, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service.  

Exciting news? From the IRS? Actually, yes. Inside that envelope was the news that my dream had been realized -– the approval of incorporation for a new and badly-named charity called Books for Nepal.

Ten years later, the organization now known as Room to Read has achieved far more than I ever dreamed possible. Thanks to the passion and dedication of so many of us who believe that World Change Starts with Educated Children, we are now able to celebrate what we think of as “the year of tens.” 

During our ten year anniversary year, we will grow our Girls’ Education program so that it supports the education of over 10,000 girls. We have already opened our 1,000th school, and quite soon -– in fact just next week -– we will celebrate the opening of our 10,000th Reading Room library! 

As a person whose life was profoundly influenced by the libraries in my school and my home town, I cannot think of a happier set of numbers than these: over 4 million children visiting 10,000 libraries stocked with over 7 million books.

The 10,000th Reading Room celebration will take place on April 30, back in the place where it all began:  Nepal. Along with a small group of Room to Read investors, we will experience the history of Room to Read by doing a “check up" visit to the first school we opened, along with that first library in the village of Bahundanda. We will then celebrate the 10,000th Reading Room milestone on the outskirts of Pokhara, in the shadow of the Annapurna mountain range. While there, we will make our vow to continue bringing books, libraries, and the lifelong gift of education to even more children during our second decade.

Along the way, as much as we can get out to you, our team will be blogging, Tweeting, FLIPing, Facebook posting, taking photographs, and pretty much doing everything short of sending you a personal voicemail in order to share the excitement of this trip.

And, thanks to all your RT’s on our #tweet4books promoted Twitter campaign and thanks to the generous donation by Breadpig (@breadpig), we’ve raised the equivalent of over 3,600 books that will fully stock our 10,000th library. I look forward to carrying in some of my favorite Nepali local language children’s titles like Tommy Tempo or Dorje and Bhakku and handing those over to the children who are eagerly awaiting the opening of their new library.

We hope you will, as they say, "WATCH THIS SPACE" and keep tabs on our journey. Our Twitter feeds are: @roomtoread and @johnwoodRTR.

We will announce new blog posts from Nepal via these Twitter accounts. We hope you will not only follow us, but also share the news and excitement with friends, family, co-workers, and potential chapter members and investors.

We will look forward to updating you, live from the Himalayas!

With warmest regards,

John Wood

'Tis the Season: Room to Read Benefits from Financial Times Seasonal Giving Campaign

LONDON: 'Tis the season to be thankful and Room to Read certainly has much to be grateful for!

I’m now in London for the kick-off of the Financial Times’ annual seasonal giving campaign that this year benefits Room to Read and it's been a whirlwind of activity and excitement!

In case you haven't heard, we were chosen as the Financial Times' charity partner for its 2009-2010 seasonal appeal in a vote by 1,600 FT employees worldwide. Read the official press release here.

Also as part of the launch, tonight in London I joined the Financial Times CEO John Ridding, Room to Read Board Member Dambisa Moyo, our UK Advisory board and staff, our corporate sponsors, and many others, at a celebration of our partnership at the elegant Quintessentially Soho at the House of St Barnabas. The evening included our first generous donor commitment to fund a school in Nepal as part of the campaign! We hope to replicate that success and enthusiasm at other launch events with the FT that are planned for Hong Kong and New York in early December.

Just as exciting is that starting today and through mid-January, the Financial Times will run print and online stories as well as public service announcements on behalf of Room to Read to raise money and increase awareness of our work. The first story, All sitting comfortably? by FT Asia editor, David Pilling, hit news stands this morning and paints a great picture of our work in Laos.  We will be posting all the upcoming stories and videos at www.roomtoread.org/FT as well as www.FT.com/appeal throughout December.

 
FINALLY, all donations made to the campaign (up to US$1 million) will be matched dollar for dollar and pound for pound thanks to the generosity of three of Room to Read's corporate donors: Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse and Atlassian.

It goes without saying that Room to Read is truly honored to be the selected beneficiary for this Financial Times campaign and we will do all that we can to reach our goal of raising US$2 million over the next 8 weeks. Millions of children are counting on us!

To make it easy, we are accepting donations in seven different currencies to make sure everyone who wants to support this campaign can. Visit www.roomtoread.org/FT and consider making a gift that will give more children the chance to learn.

We want this to be the most successful appeal in Financial Times’ history and we appreciate anything you can do to help us to accomplish this dream through the incredible networks that you bring to Room to Read!

-- John Wood, founder and executive chairman of Room to Read

P.S.To mark the launch, the Financial Times and Quintessentially are also holding an Online Charity Auction through eBay where you can bid on some exclusive luxury and money-can't-buy items such as: a rare signed auction booklet for J.K Rowling’s ‘The Tale of Beedle the Bard’, your name as character in a future novel by bestselling writer Adele Parks, a holiday for two at the Half Moon Resort in Jamaica, and an elite membership to Quintessentially for one year.  Bidding has already started and goes through November 30 at http://www.quintessentially.com/auction/.   Happy bidding!

Getting Connected: Qualcomm and Room to Read Launch the School Wireless Computer Lab Pilot in Nepal and Vietnam

Just yesterday, Room to Read launched a special pilot project called the “School Wireless Computer Lab” with the help of Qualcomm Wireless Reach that connected schools in Vietnam and Nepal to the Internet – for the first time!   John Wood and others on the Room to Read team were witness to the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Shree Amarjyoti Gaunpharka Secondary School in the Kaski district of Nepal.  John was joined by representatives from Qualcomm, Nepal Telecom, the Secretary of the Nepal Ministry of Education, students and community members.  They all watched in amazement as students discovered what the Internet is all about and how it can act as a resource and educational tool for their future.

“Who is the 44th President of the United States?” asked John.  Quickly, students went to Google or another search engine to find out the answer.  “Obama!  Obama!” shouted the children with delight.  “What is the time in Sydney, Australia?”  Fingers scurried to find the correct keys and soon hands went up.  “5pm!  5pm!”  Students also met new friends at another school in Nepal through a Skype video chat. 

Each lab includes 20-25 computers that will serve as many as 50 students during a class period.  Outside of school sessions, the lab will be opened for the community so they can learn from it as well.   The community, through Room to Read’s challenge grant, has a stake in the project’s success because we required each school establish a Computer Lab Development Fund.  For each computer in the lab, a school must deposit $1,500 Nepalese Rupees (NR), which translates to approximately $20USD.  Therefore, the Shree Amariyoti School raised on their own $30,000 NR ($400 USD).  This money goes into savings account managed by the Computer Lab Management Committee so that the community can be responsible for and afford lab management and equipment maintenance after Room to Read’s support ends.  Amariyoti raised this money through fundraising activities like going door-to-door to collect contributions, sponsoring cultural events, and appealing for funding through the local temples.  While this is a challenge for any community, including Amariyoti, their success means they feel personally invested in the project and are owners toward its success.

In addition to providing training for students to learn basic computer skills through a government-sanctioned curriculum that Room to Read developed, each lab will use technology to teach other subjects such as English, math and science.

The pilot established five wireless labs in the Kaski and Kavre regions of Nepal and six in Can Tho Province of southern Vietnam because it’s in these regions where landline access is limited or unreliable.  By providing affordable and high-quality Internet connectivity to government schools, these wireless lab pilots will help underserved students bridge the digital divide and addresses the goal of universal access and opportunity in education.  In Nepal, all the labs were established in schools where Room to Read was already working. For example, at Shree Anarjyoti, we had already been working in the community and provided them a Reading Room library in 2007.  With the added value of a wireless lab, these students will be able to check out and learn from the over 2,000 library books and then continue to research and learn more on a subject that peaks their interest through the Internet.

Thank you Qualcomm!

To learn more about our pilot projects, click here.