Room to Read Blog

Meet Our Team: Lynn Foden, Chief of International Operations

Lynn Foden joined Room to Read as Chief of International Operations in 2012 with 25 years of experience working in developing countries, including a role as Chief of Operations for the Africa Region of the Peace Corps. Six months into her new role, we caught up with Lynn to hear more about her career in international development and about what’s to come in the months ahead.

How did you originally get into the field of international development?

When I was in high school I went to a presentation by a Peace Corps volunteer who had constructed a library in Togo, West Africa. Having seen his excitement in the project as well as the transformative effect of the library, I became interested in international development.

Later on, with my engineering background, I was able to help develop water supply and sanitation projects in Africa. After spending two years in a rural community living side by side with my African friends, colleagues and neighbors, I felt as though I could make contributions in this area.

Based on your experience abroad, why do you think gender equality is so important?

From my early experiences seeing girls walk hours to fetch water and then perform incredibly hard physical labor, working towards solutions for girls and women took on an additional significance for me.

What made you decide to join Room to Read?

I am very excited about the mission of the organization and particularly about the team that I met during the interview process. It was clear from those early interactions that this is a very special group of people who are extremely committed to changing the world.

What has been the greatest surprise in your first six months?

It was visiting classrooms in South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania in January. There were two highlights that stood out for me. 

First was seeing the engagement of first grade teachers who are part of our Reading & Writing Instruction program. You could really see the joy and pride on their faces, knowing they had both the skills and confidence to help change their students’ futures. 

The second moment that stood out was sitting with our social mobilizers in Zambia. They are only a few years out of high school themselves, but their passion and commitment to helping other girls was inspiring—particularly with the challenges they are facing in weather, poor roads and difficult transportation.

Learn more about our leadership.

Guest Blog from our CFO: Earning Our 4-Star Rating, 365 Days of the Year

This is a guest post by Joanne Chou, who has served as Room to Read’s Chief Financial Officer since 2008.

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At Room to Read, we know that how we work is just as important as what we accomplish, so when we learned last week that our organization had received Charity Navigator’s highest-possible 4-star rating for the seventh consecutive year, we were positively elated.

Only two percent of charities rated by Charity Navigator can claim such a long string of 4-star ratings, which measures several factors of organizations’ financial health along with their commitments to accountability and transparency. Here are some examples of the ways in which Room to Read works that have helped us earn our “exceptional” rating:

Financial Efficiency – For the fiscal year upon which the current rating are based (2011), 85.2% of every dollar we spent went directly to programs (as opposed to fundraising and administration costs). Without downplaying the need to invest in infrastructure and our teams across all functions, we keep a watchful eye on expenses and use technology and innovative partnerships to work more efficiently. This includes video conferencing to connect geographically-dispersed teams and purchasing many of our materials in and around the communities where we work, where costs are significantly lower. We have also started looking at aggregating some purchases across program countries to get economies of scale.

Accountability & Transparency – We like to take a “more is more” approach to transparency, and publish six years’ worth of audited financials, 990 forms and annual reports on our website. We also make sure to post information about key staff, an extensive privacy policy and a full list of our board members, so that our supporters can invest with confidence.

As a global organization, we know that sound fiscal management, transparency and accountability are the responsibility of every member of our team, and have built a culture around these values that crosses borders and has permeated every level of the organization.  As chief financial officer, I am proud of the respect our worldwide staff shows every day for the fiduciary duty we owe to our supporters, partners and beneficiaries, and note that this latest recognition from Charity Navigator is a direct result of that organization-wide commitment.

To learn more about how we work, visit the financials page on our website or see the press release announcing our most recent rating.

A Message from Our Team: Honoring the World's Educators

Dear Friends,

As most of you have probably heard, last week a small town in Connecticut was devastated by a school shooting that killed 20 young children and six educators.  As we continue to learn more about this tragedy, so many of us are angry and frustrated with violence that has plagued the United States and moved into our once-safe school environments.  Just as powerful, though, are our feelings of awe and respect for the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School who did everything they could to protect the children there from harm.

This incident has reminded me that teachers—no matter what country they work in and what resources they possess—have some of the most difficult jobs in the world. Not only are they responsible for the huge task of helping children to learn, but also for teaching morals, wiping children’s noses when they run, and protecting children under the most difficult circumstances. In addition to parents and families, teachers are the most important participants in ensuring the success of our work at Room to Read. They are a huge part of our overall success.

So in this holiday season, as we think about the people who matter most in our lives, I wanted to send a special thank you to the teachers around the world who work hard to protect, influence, educate and change lives.

My very best to you and your families during this holiday season.

Sincerely,

Cory Heyman
Chief Program Officer
on behalf of the entire Room to Read Family

Photo Blog from Vietnam: The Color Palette

Phong Le is Room to Read’s Country Director for Vietnam. Last week, in addition to his usual duties, this meant hosting our annual Country Management Conference (CMC), a time when our country, regional and global management teams gather to make decisions on strategic and operational matters affecting the organization as a whole. An avid photographer, Phong agreed to share some of his pictures and reflections from the event.

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I named this post “The Color Palette,” because that is the best way I can think of to describe Room to Read—different people from different continents, countries and cultures working together to provide better education for our children. After hosting the Country Management Conference this year, I see us as colors on a palette, and am more confident than ever that together we are painting a bright picture.

This year’s CMC was a long-awaited and very inspirational event for me, and for the rest of the Room to Read Vietnam staff. We have been hard at work preparing enthusiastically for the arrival of our colleagues from around the world, and the effort was well worth it.

The week began with a celebration of CEO Erin Ganju’s 10 years of service to the organization. We then continued the conference with many meetings, workshops and discussions around how to make our programs the best they can be, and how we can learn from each other’s successes. We ended the week with a farewell dinner that introduced Vietnamese culture to our guests, with traditional dance and music performed by our staff and their friends.

The cap on a truly inspirational week was a group site visit to see some of Room to Read Vietnam’s projects in the field. I was so touched to see our Girls’ Education program participants speaking confidently with our guests from other countries and hearing the young students in our libraries read aloud for us. I was reminded of the power education has to connect people, and to make distances—even between countries—seem shorter.

Lear more about our work in Vietnam.

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.

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.

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 Laos: Looking Ahead to the Next Five Years

On a recent trip to Laos, our Regional Director for Asia, Jon Beaulieu, signed a five-year agreement with the government of Laos to extend our programs there. He shares his thoughts on the experience, as well as our work in the country so far in a guest post from the field.

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Last February, I went to Laos to meet with our team on the ground there to discuss Room to Read’s Global Strategy and how it can be localized to further our partnership with the government. The goal was to find ways to make a bigger impact in the country, and the government, which is currently encouraging growth through private sector investment, was enthusiastic from the start.

What began as months of strategic planning between our local team and the Ministriy of Education, became an official Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed into effect on July 28, outlining the next five years of our partnership.

It was an incredible experience working closely with the various government entities and teams on the ground to come to a consensus about our goals for the next five years, with the best interest of the children of Laos at the forefront of our discussions.

The new MoU outlines our programs and targets over the next five years, including establishing 500 libraries, building 150 schools, publishing 75 new Lao-language children’s books, and supporting the holistic education of an additional 1,500 girls.

In addition to those very specific targets, Room to read will focus on maximizing the sustainability of our investments in Laos. By partnering with communities and the government, we seek to ensure continued quality and long-term success for our programs in the country, including the 851 libraries and 172 schools we established in Room to Read Laos’ first five years of operation.

Read more about our programs in Laos.

 

Room to Read Honored by UNESCO with 2011 Confucius Prize for Literacy

Big news came today from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s headquarters in Paris, France: the winners of the 2011 UNESCO Literacy Prizes have been announced, and Room to Read has been chosen as one of the awardees for the 2011 Confucius Prize for Literacy!

The award, established in 2005, recognizes the activities of outstanding individuals, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in literacy. This year, Room to Read's Local Language Publishing program was recognized for its success in producing and distributing high-quality, culturally-relevant books to young readers in Asia and Africa.

UNESCO’s selection committee also commended our commitment to increasing local capacity by working with local authors and illustrators to produce over 550 original local-language children's books to date. 

The Room to Read team will be on hand in New Delhi, India, on September 8 to officially accept the award at UNESCO’s International Literacy Day celebration, which includes a $20,000 grant to fund our programs. Photos of our work will also be on display as part of an exhibition at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris September 5-11, alongside images from fellow 2011 Literacy Award winners from Burundi, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and programs with Honorable Mentions from Pakistan and the Philippines.

We are extremely honored by UNESCO's choice to recognize Room to Read’s work, and by the thoughtful nomination submitted by Dr. Fernando Reimers of our board of directors.

Thank you to everyone who has invested in our literacy programs over the past 11 years—we could not do any of it without you!

You can read about all the 2011 Literacy Prize winners in UNESCO’s Press Release.

Learn about our Local Language Publishing program on the Room to Read website.

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.