Room to Read Blog

Pocket Libraries Teach Literacy and Leadership in Cambodia

Finding time read during school breaks is a universal challenge for students around the globe, but in Cambodia, where children’s books are an unaffordable luxury for most families, it can be nearly impossible.

Recognizing the value of continuous access to books for students’ reading habits, our team in Cambodia embarked on a problem-solving mission late last year. What we needed was a low-cost, high-impact ways of ensuring that even children in the most remote Cambodian communities had the reading material they needed to practing their budding literacy skills during school breaks. 

Constructed of sturdy material sewn to create folds as wide as storybooks, the pocket library seemed like a perfect solution. Large enough to contain a collection of 100 books, it can be hung nearly anywhere. During weekends and school breaks, the entire contraption is rolled up and transported from village to village, allowing children to check out the books one at a time.

“I used to wish for more books to read from at home besides my school textbook,” says Thavry, a fifth grade student from the Kampong Cham province. “Now, the books come to me!”

After piloting the pocket libraries in 2011, our team has now extended the program to several other districts. “Exposure to books at school alone is not enough,” says Chea Sum Vuthy, one of the field facilitators from our School Libraries program. “There must be other accessibility as well.”

In addition to promoting literacy, the pocket library initiative also teaches valuable leadership skills. Students take turns looking after the system and managing the check-out register with enthusiasm. For many, including Thavry, the visits from the pocket library provide the only exposure to reading material outside of school.

Learn more about our School Libraries.

Literacy by the Numbers: Guest Blog from Our Research, Monitoring & Evaluation Team

This is a guest post from Peter Cooper, Room to Read's Senior Officer for Research, Monitoring and Evaluation.

*****

As an organization, Room to Read has always been committed to the sustainability of our programs. We know that a library is only as good as the number of lives it enriches, so we design each and every one of our programs to ensure the greatest possible sustainability and sense of community ownership.

In an effort to learn more about the sustainability of our school libraries and to put our own theories to the test, we launched a multi-country study in 2011 that examined a statistically representative sample of our post-completion libraries (i.e., projects that have “graduated” from our program and are now run without support from Room to Read). Over a period of months, independent evaluators funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation visited 517 school libraries in three countries—Cambodia, Nepal and South Africa—to see how effectively each project was functioning on its own and where Room to Read might enhance our program to improve the odds of success for all school libraries.

Our team put together the infographic below, featuring highlights from the study, so that our supporters around the globe can catch a glimpse of what we found. Take a look (to view the image full-size, use this link):

Read more about Research, Monitoring and Evaluation on our website.

Aussie Students Sign up to Build a Library in Cambodia, Just in Time for the New Year

This weekend, Cambodia held its annual New Year’s celebration (Chaul Chnam Thmey), and for the students of Pradak Primary School in Siem Reap, the new year will be one filled with hundreds of brand new books.

Starting today, students from primary schools across Australia will come together in a nationwide campaign, the Stubbies Schoolwear World Change Challenge, raising money to build the first-ever library at Pradak Primary.

The campaign kicked off at Ocean Shores Public School, where students raised AU$575 in one day—enough to print 575 local language books to stock the shelves of the soon-to-be-constructed library. To earn the money, students participated in a number of activities, ranging from a mini read-a-thon to a book swap, and one teacher even sponsored a student to keep quiet for the whole day!

Children’s book author Tristan Bancks helped Ocean Shores make a video about the day they spent changing the world (below) to help inspire other schools to get involved. An writer-ambassador for Room to Read, Tristan has even volunteered his own time to the challenge—pledging to hold an exclusive reading and writing workshop with the classroom that raises the most money towards the $20,000 goal.

Good luck to all the schools participating and thanks for being a part of the global movement for education!

Watch the video:

  

Learn more about our work in Cambodia.

How One Woman's Book Club in India Has Transformed an Entire Community

The residents of the Shaoliya village in Rajasthan used to spend their evenings playing cards, but recently a new activity had become popular in the community—reading.

In 2008, Room to Read established a library at the local government primary school, but found that engaging parents in their children’s literacy habits was an uphill task. “We had a hard time explaining the benefits of a library to the parents and teachers who were resistant to this change,” says the library facilitator.

Then one day, Sita Kimari—a long-time resident of Shaoliya who was educated only up to fifth grade—decided to check out the school’s new facilities. “I was attracted by the large illustrations, even though I couldn’t read the books,” she says. “As a child, my father always forbade me from reading and wanted me to help him in the fields instead, but there was something welcoming about the library.”

Sita began to make regular visits to the school library whenever she had spare time. “I would sit in the room and try to read the lines written below the illustrations,” she recalls. “The librarian helped me to overcome my fright of reading, and now I can read some books aloud with confidence.”

After she had experienced the value of the library, Sita offered to help our team engage the rest of the community. Some villagers, she said, saw school as a place for children only, which kept them from using the library. In an effort to remove that stigma, Sita began to check out a few books at a time from the school library and issue them to friends and neighbors. She also started a reading club and discussion forum with other women in the village.

Soon the large courtyard in front of Sita’s house had turned into a nightly reading corner—filled to the brim with adults and children devouring books in their local language. Sita keeps a meticulous register of all checkouts and even attended a training put on by our local team on how to tell stories effectively, for those in her community who cannot read at all.

These efforts, combined with the students’ enthusiasm for reading have had an immense effect on the community’s priorities. “Each evening, I look forward to coming to Sita’s house to read these books,” says Dhanraj Choudhary, a neighbor. “The simplicity of language and ideas in these books makes them attractive.”

Dhanraj has quickly become a regular of Sita’s book club. “I have stopped playing cards in my spare time,” he says. “Instead I read books.”

Learn more about our School Library program and about our work in India.

Floating Library Boosts Literacy in Remote Cambodian Villages

 For the water-dwelling communities of the Tonle Sap Lake in central Cambodia, commuting to school can be quite a challenge. With houses that float on the river’s ever-fluctuating surface and a population that is sustained almost entirely by fishing in the surrounding waters, there are a lot of barriers to education. School is separated from the students’ homes by a two-kilometer boat ride, so each child must learn to swim before making the daily trip to Phat Sanday Primary School.

The school rests on floating docks, and serves 358 students from three villages. Due to its relative inaccessibility, the schools in this area have largely been ignored by development efforts, but in 2009, Room to Read established a library at Phat Sanday Primary—adding more than a thousand books to the shelves and committing three years of training for the school’s staff.

“The library is my world now,” beams ten-year-old So Kim Suo. “I always come here when I have free time.”

The school's staff has noted a marked change in the students since the library opened, as well. “The school grounds used to be very quiet,” says librarian Chhun Nhork. “Now, with the new library, the sound of students reading aloud is enough to compete with the boats that roar through this area.”

The school’s principal, Heng Peng Eang, agrees. “Before, it was hard to teach because we were completely dependent on only the one textbook from the ministry of education,” he recalls. “Now, we can use different books to guide the teaching and learning process.”

Before the addition of the library, he remembers many students in the upper grades who were still unable to read at the appropriate level—a fact only exacerbated by the half-day schedule the school uses to avoid overcrowding its facilities. “Now,” he says, “they can read confidently.” 

Learn more about our programs in Cambodia.

Student Groups Across Canada Plan “In-Tents” Event to Support Global Literacy

It’s not uncommon to hear university students speak of “living in the library,” but it’s usually meant as a metaphor. This January, though students from 10 campuses across Canada gave the phrase a new meaning, all in the name of literacy.

As part of the annual “Live-in for Literacy” event, students set up camp (tents and all!) in their school libraries and stayed there for an entire week.

Organized by a student organization called DREAM (Discovering the Reality of Educating All Minds), based at Queen’s University, the live-in started in 2006 as a means of raising both funds for Room to Read’s programs and awareness of illiteracy worldwide. This year’s live-in included campers from Queen’s University, Laurentian University at Georgian, Laurentian University at Sudbury, McMaster University, Memorial University, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto at St. George and York University.

“We believe that everyone has the right to be equally educated, and we want to open the eyes of our colleagues and peers,” say DREAM organizers Nitasha Sarin and Kat Manica. “As university students we have had the privilege of education, and we want to share that access to knowledge to others around the world.” 

Since 2005, DREAM has raised over $100,0000 for our work, all through grassroots outreach efforts like this one—having funded 9 libraries in Nepal, 5 libraries in India, 1 computer lab and the publishing of over 10,000 local-language children’s books.

“It’s a lot of fun,” says one camper from Queen’s. “Sometimes [people] are surprised by what we’re doing, but mostly the reactions are very positive and people cheer us on.” Receiving donations from her peers, she says, is a highlight. “It feels great knowing that people in the community care about our cause and are willing to support us.”

More than just a fund-raising effort, the event was extremely successful in raising awareness for Room to Read across Canada. Many of the campers made their local broadcast news, and the tents drew the attention of fellow students.

Congratulations to all the student teams for yet another great event, and thanks to the participating schools for your dedication to ensuring all children have the chance to pursue an education!

Feeling inspired? Learn more about our Students Helping Students program, or join us for a live webinar in March to learn how you can plan your own "Live-in" event. [For details email students@roomtoread.org; subject: LiL webinar]

A Record of Success for One Budding Librarian in Sri Lanka

Nine-year-old Dilshi loves the library at Hedunuwewa Primary School. Ever since Room to Read launched our School Library program there three years ago, she has been a regular, having read more than 240 of its 2,600 books.

At home, the books Dilshi read allowed her to explore new ideas and places, which made her think: with school so far away, there were others in her community that could not experience such joy.

This realization, coupled with her zealous love of reading, inspired Dilshi to create her own small library at home, and she immediately got started building her inventory.

Armed with a detailed checkout log and classification system, Dilshi runs her home library with the utmost efficiency. “I checked out 11 books to my friends and family during the school vacation last December,” she says, confirming the number with a glance at her register.

“Dilshi is my good friend," says Shachini, another fifth-grader from the school. "I went to see her home library and thought it was very beautiful.”

As word of Dilshi’s home library spread, she gained more and more patrons from the surrounding area—a fact, says her librarian, that is particularly important given the district’s remote, rural setting.

“Before Room to Read and Dilshi’s library,” says the librarian, “we had to take the primary school students to another school if we wanted them to see a library full of books.”

Our team in Sri Lanka, upon seeing the effects of Dilshi’s project, awarded her with a special literacy certificate recognizing the quality of her home library.

“I’m most impressed with the records she keeps,” says the principal of her school. It’s clear that the home library project is helping Dilshi develop more than just her literacy skills.

Learn more about our School Libraries and our work in Sri Lanka.

Finding Personal Strength and a Love of Reading on the Shelves of a School Library in South Africa

Aphiwe Dyobhiso is a bright, friendly student at Mpongo Farm School in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. At 12 years old, the fourth grader—like many of her peers in South Africa—lags behind grade level in reading and writing, but her teachers are quick to point out that her latent literacy skills don’t stop her from participating in school. She enjoys storytelling exercises and works hard to keep up with her classmates.

One day during a visit to the Mpongo School Library established by Room to Read, the librarian read aloud to the students from a book called Kutheni Gugu about a mother’s struggle with HIV and AIDS.

It was clear right away how much Aphiwe loved the story, and as weeks went by the librarian noticed that she continued to check it out every library period. Despite her difficulty reading, Aphiwe would patiently sit down with the book, going from beginning to end meticulously and learning the words. She also began to recommend the book to her fellow students.

Aphiwe’s teachers and the school’s principal, Ms. Nontando Tata, were surprised at this turn of events, and it was not until learning more about the girl’s background that they understood her fascination with Kutheni Gugu.

As it turned out, Aphiwe’s mother had passed away from AIDS the previous year, leaving her to live in a one-room house with her great-grandmother and three other relatives. The story of Kutheni Gugu has helped her process her family’s tragedy and see that she is not alone in the experience.

Ms. Tata hopes that this newfound interest in reading combined with some extra help this school year will allow Aphiwe to catch up with her peers. Through a new program at the library, “Reading Buddies”, Aphiwe will be paired with an intermediate-level reader in her class that can help her to sound out the words and sentences until she becomes more comfortable reading on her own.

In addition to providing children of families affected by AIDS in South Africa with a relatable story to enjoy, books like Kutheni Gugu are also instrumental in turning the tide against the disease by helping children develop a love of reading and learning. Studies show that a child who finishes primary school is 50% less likely to contract HIV, extending the benefits of a fully-stocked library and well-trained teacher-librarians far beyond the schoolyard gates.

To learn more about our School Libraries and our work in South Africa.

Show & Tell: Postcards from Vietnam's Mekong Delta

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. 

*****

Today’s show and tell comes from Danielle Reichner, senior global program operations officer.  

Along with colleagues John Beaulieu (regional director for Asia) and Steve Wisman (director of international operations), Danielle had the chance to visit a Room to Read library in the Tieu Can District of Vietnam's Mekong Delta earlier this month. 

Danielle sent back these photos from her visit:

Learn more about our School Library program and our work in Vietnam.

Elephant Mobile Library Treats Young Readers in Laos to a Day They Will Never Forget

“Elephants are coming! Elephants are coming!” Hundreds of young voices shout in chorus, the excitement palpable. But these are not just any elephants—they are four-legged libraries!

In Laos, the Asian elephant has long been a national symbol. Since ancient times, the loveable giants have been extremely useful—from battlefields to agricultural fields—but now they’ve found a new home on the endangered species list.

In an effort to both increase public awareness of the elephants’ plight and support literacy in rural communities, Room to Read Laos teamed up with two other NGOs (Action with Lao Children and ElefantAsia) as well as the local government to implement the first ever Elephant Mobile Library.

The perfect mode of delivery for remote communities, the Elephant  Mobile Library has been an instant hit. Stocked with 640 Lao-language children’s books (many featuring elephants) and supplementary educational materials, the library’s maiden voyage included four primary schools that serve more than 1,000 students in the northern province of Xaybouly.

Today, the Elephant Mobile Library has made its way to one of those very schools, greeted by hundreds of young readers. As the elephants enter the school gates, scores of students line up dutifully—eager to get a closer look at their unusual guests. With bright eyes and wide smiles, the youngest students strain to wait their turns, bouncing up and down with excitement. Our team is surprised when none of the students seem afraid of the giant creatures, carefully approaching the elephants one-by-one, and accepting a book from the “librarians” seated atop them.

The day’s events continue with literacy games, songs, storytelling circles and comprehension exercises lead by the Room to Read team, all with a focus on elephant conservation and what individuals can do to help these creatures thrive. It’s clear from the laughter ringing through the air and enthusiastic participation that for these young readers, the Elephant Mobile Library is a welcomed addition to the curriculum.

Learn more about our School Library program and other innovative in-country partnerships.