Room to Read Blog

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.

 

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!

Reuniting with a Familiar Friend: Sabina from Nepal

As you know, in recognition of Mother's Day, all donations in May toward our Girls’ Education program are being matched thanks to a generous donor. Thank you to those who have already contributed and made a difference in the lives of the thousands of girls on the program.

To show you what a difference our Girls' Education program is having, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite “girl” stories that we get asked about a lot at Room to Read –- the story of a Nepali Girls’ Education program scholar named Sabina.

For those that need a refresher on Sabina, in 2007 PBS’s FRONTLINE/World  produced a short documentary called "Nepal: A Girl’s Life" that documented a nine year old Sabina and what her life was like now that she was on our Girls’ Education program and had the opportunity to go to school and learn to read.

At age nine, Sabina sat on a pile of stones and while chipping away at a rock with  a hammer in her hand, told us that she wanted to be a doctor. But now the young lady asserts that she wants to work on airplanes with a kind of authority that is difficult to challenge!

You’ll see from reading the story below that there is no stopping Sabina from reaching out for the stars.

***

Sabina walks into the room quietly but when spotting Reema, Room to Read’s Girls’ Education program officer in Nepal, breaks into a huge smile and runs over to greet Reema with a warm hug.

“I was happy to hear that you are here! It is like meeting someone from my own family,” she says with a giggle before giving her another hug and then turning around to find out who the new faces in the group were.

“What is your name?” she asks us even before we can introduce ourselves. She extends her hand out for a firm hand shake.  It is endearing to see Sabina the child, grow into a confident and graceful young teenager.

Sabina, who just turned thirteen, is soft spoken but she's certainly at ease with the Room to Read Nepal staff as she laughs and jokes with them. She even sings a song for the team and does a quick folk dance to update us about her new found hobbies and interests.

Sabina is now in 6th grade  and her interest in reading story books has not diminished. “I take one book home each week.  I would love to read more but I do not have much free time,” says Sabina softly.

With both her parents away at work for most of the day, Sabina and her brother have to share the house chores. “I get up in the morning around 5:45 am and then study for two hours while my brother cooks lunch for the family. At eight on the dot, both of us leave for school,” says Sabina before adding, “In the evening it is my turn to cook the meal before my parents return. It is very tiring to get back from school and start cooking. I don’t have the energy to study after that.”

“How will you become a doctor then?” I counter.

“Ooops! Who said I want to become a doctor? I said that when I was a kid and did not know about other options. Now I want to work on airplanes as a hostess!” she says with a flourish.

“But why?” I persist.

She laughs aloud and then changes her tone, “I want to see the world and working on airplanes is one way I can do that.” Sabina raises her hand to indicate that she has not finished explaining. “More importantly, my priority now is to finish my studies quickly and be able to find a profession that allows me to earn money for the family.”

"Do you still get to go out and play your favorite games?” we ask, anxious to find out if our Sabina has actually shaken away her childhood fantasies and dreams completely.

“No way! I am too big to go out and play games now. When I do get time now, I watch Hindi movies with my friends on the TV at my neighbor’s house.”

On being asked if she still had to go to stone quarry, Sabina nods. “My parents discourage me from going there now. They want me to study.  But I go there once in a while when we have a school holiday so that my mother can take some rest.”

As we get ready to leave, we tease Sabina and tell her that the next time we meet she will have decided on pursuing another career path.

“Not a chance!” says Sabina and then grabs a piece of paper and writes ‘Airhostess: Sabina Timalsinha’ before adding “Keep this paper as a record!”

On our way back to the city, we stop at the stone quarry to visit Sabina’s parents. They continue to work at the same stone quarry on the outskirts of Kathmandu.  Their day starts as early as 7:00 am (6:00 am in summer) and both husband and wife keep chipping at the rocks untill 6:00 pm with just a one hour lunch break.

“It is tough but we don’t have any other skill so we have to continue to earn a living this way,” says Sabina’s mother, Rita.

Between them they earn $1,600 Nepalese Rupees every month ($21 USD).  “We are grateful to Room to Read for supporting Sabina,” says her father Krishna Prasad. He explains, “This opportunity has also made us more aware of our responsibilities as parents. For if people from far off countries are supporting our child in school then we should also do our best to ensure that she does get a good education. So now we save $50 Nepalese Rupees every week from our earnings to ensure our kids can go to college later.”

Before we parted with Sabina she confirmed this change in her family.  “ I want to thank Room to Read for this opportunity. It has changed not just my life but also that of my parents because now they are committed to our study.”

-- Reena Luke

To read more stories like that of Sabina, please download our 2009 Girls' Education Yearbook (pdf).

And, don't forget for the month of May in honor of Mother's Day, all donations to our Girls' Education Program are matched up to $150,000!  Click here to donate for yourself or in honor of a special loved one.

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.

Trek to 10,000: Day 4 - Ngadi and the Marching Band

 

NGADI: Our day started with an early morning breakfast in the town of Besi Sahar.  After we had filled our bellies with Nepali tea and hearty breakfast treats, we started the four-hour uphill climb along the Marshyangdi River to the town of Ngadi in Lamjung Province.  We reached Ngadi just in time for lunch, and as we were carefully crossing a rickety bridge, the tranquil sound of the river flow was suddenly broken. Coming toward us was a 75-person “marching band” ready to accompany us to their village!  We must have been quite a sight as we ambled up the hill for the last 45 minutes of our journey -– Room to Read trekkers being serenaded by villagers playing trumpets, horns and drums, and women in brightly colored saris weaving in and out of our group handing out flowers.  From every direction, from every mouth, we heard the warm greeting of “Namaste,” and felt like we were being welcomed home. 

When we reached the village, we were greeted by a large red “welcome” banner and were escorted to a very familiar school -– the first Room to Read school that had been established back in 2000.  Awaiting us were 700 people who had come from all over to greet us, 300 of which were students!  

It was wonderful to see our honored guests be recognized: Robert and Caroline Wood (John’s parents), because this school had originally been dedicated to them in 2000, as well as Angela Anstatt and her daughter Kim Anstatt Morton, because the extension of the school had been dedicated to Herman and Bruce Anstatt (Kim’s father and brother). 

Room to Read has been working with this particular school over the past ten years and helping them expand their educational resources.  The school was originally built in 2000 to house grades 1-5, and in 2003 it was upgraded to accommodate students through grade 10. The facility now also houses a beautiful and colorful library which was established in 2008, and to help fill the library shelves, we presented over 300 newly printed Room to Read local language children’s books to the teachers.  The books had had their own journey to reach the village, having been transported  up the river and by donkey caravan to get here! The applause we received was priceless and will be long remembered.

People often ask us about how we know our libraries are working. We decided to do an impromptu check of this library and are thrilled to report that when we looked at their library registry book, more than 6,600 books had been checked out of this library over the last three years!

Our group then broke into teams of six and participated in a project to decorate the walkways of the library with a mural of pictures.  We were drawn specifically to two painting done by students.  One was a self-portrait of a young girl reading who had a halo over her head that was the Room to Read logo.  The second painting, done by a young boy, showed an adult male wearing only one flip-flop to show his lack of wealth and holding an upside-down pen.  “What did this picture represent?” we asked.  The young artist told us it showed an uneducated man who was sad because he was illiterate and could not write.
 
We were then treated to a play put on by the students which told a story of a little Nepali girl whose parents would not allow her to go to school because they wanted her to work and did not see any value in education.  Well, you can guess the happy ending of the play -- a Room to Read staff member and a teacher, played by students, intervened with the parents and taught them the valuable lesson that “world change does started with educated children” –- their own children.  The girl was allowed to attend school and yes, that was the happy ending. But the happiest part for us was seeing the mothers of the students and the children themselves watch the play with rapt attention and listen to and agree with the important message.

This day was filled with so many incredible images, sights and sounds -– immersed in the wonder of the nature surrounding us and the warmth of the people engaging us, our tired muscles are quickly forgotten.

-- Kim Anstatt, Tim Koogle and John Wood 

Visit www.roomtoread.org/trektotenthousand for more news and photos! 

Trek to 10,000: Day 3 - Besi Sahar

 

  

BESI SAHAR: This photo says it all about Nepal and the word "Namaste."

Namaste is the warm greeting you hear throughout this country and it means "I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One.” 

This word and meaning captures the magic of Nepal and it is what captivated me the first time eight years ago when I spent six weeks hiking and river rafting amongst the gorgeous scenery.  And it is what is keeping all of us on this trek inspired.

The reception we have received along our journey thus far has been nothing short of spectacular.  Warm welcomes from the entire community –- young and old alike -– with garlands of flowers, khatas (thank you shawls), and of course smiles that would brighten the darkest of days. It has been an amazing start to a wonderful week and I wish all of you could be here to experience.

Namaste to all of our partners, supporters, investors, and friends.

-- Jayson

Visit www.roomtoread.org/trektotenthousand for more news and photos! 

Trek to 10,000: Day 1 - Kathmandu

  KATHMANDU: Namaste!  Welcome (virtually) to Nepal and thanks for following along our “10 year celebration trek!”  Our adventure will take us from the first library that provided the spark and inspiration to start Room to Read, to the momentous milestone of our 10,000th library opening.  Throughout the trip, we'll try to include enough stories and images so you can experience this beautiful country yourself and witness how Room to Read has been providing educational opportunities to the children of Nepal these past ten years.

It was very fitting that when I got on my flight from Delhi to Kathmandu yesterday, I was joined by two  investors who jointly signed the first official check once Room to Read received tax status back in 2000.  This is their first time seeing Room to Read projects first-hand, and I couldn't be more excited to show them what their initial check helped to catalyze!

Tonight we gathered together –- our  investors, Room to Read Nepal staff and many of our friends from the NGO and government community -- to celebrate all of the accomplishments we’ve made in bringing education to millions of children of Nepal and eight other countries these last ten years.  We wish you could all be here with us to celebrate, but stay with us virtually, and we’ll try to bring you as close to the action as possible!

-- John

P.S. Check out our www.roomtoread.org/trektotenthousand for more news and photos! 

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

It's Nothing But the Best for this Local Community in Nepal and their New School

The temperature outside is dropping steadily as the ominous sound of an impending rain storm grows nearer.  In the middle of what has already proven to be a particularly cold month for Nepal, this is not good news. But despite the bitter cold, bicycles, the best transportation for the flat plain of Tarai, cover the parking lot -- left there by people who have come to witness the half constructed school building that is still missing a roof.

Nearby, a bonfire rages with members of the community, somewhat under-dressed for the day’s cold, huddled closely around the heat source. They are, of course, talking about the weather but, in stark contrast to the gloom of this frosty day, the mood is decidedly celebratory.  The huddled crowd has more important things to do that sit around lamenting the icy weather…they have a school to build!

“We’re trying a new approach here,” says the sub engineer Nirmal Kumar Tharu while pointing to the building at the end of secondary school’s current structures. “We’re applying a fero-cement channel roofing to these buildings.”

The school, located in Bardiya in the district Gulariya, is a 2 ½ hour drive from on a road that could easily be mistaken for a swimming pool after a rainstorm, which was the case last time Nirmal was there to supervise the final leg of construction. “The great thing about this method,” he says of the fero-cement channel roofing, “is that it is much less cost-effective than RCC roofing and it is also much stronger.”

“It looks great too,” says Man Bahadur Tharu, the head teacher of the school. “I cannot wait for the construction to finish so we can welcome the students inside. They are already too excited and keep asking about the progress of the building every other day.”

“The best thing about this community is that they are totally committed,” says Tharu.  And it was true – the mothers, sisters and daughters had all helped heave the concrete roofing materials up to the second story of the building, at which point the fathers, brothers and sons hoisted them up onto the roof where others were waiting to put them in position.

One by one, the assembled members of the community hoisted and heaved every concrete channel up to the roof level –- an enormous task, given that each individual fero-cement channel weighed over 1,000 lbs!  There were no complaints however, the mood was festive and the air filled with laughter.

After a grueling day, the entire team including Nirmal Kumar Tharu and his expert masons, the head teacher of the school, and the community members paused to admire the fruit of their hard labor.

Through the  pouring rain, the building  appeared to glow. Satisfied, one of the workers heaved a long sigh. “Looks good, eh?” he remarked.

Silence.

“Good?”

“It’s our school, we build. It’s nothing but the best.”

-- Rishi Amatya (with Shauna Carey)

To learn more about our School Room program, click here.

Nepal: A School for Her Granddaughter

Bishnu Maya Gurung, age 60, woke up a little early that day anticipating what was on the horizon.  She cooked and cleaned around the house, hoisted her granddaughter on to her back and made her way on foot to the Shree Lamaguru Secondary School.  It takes her approximately 15 minutes to walk from her house to the school; it was the school her kids attended and last she heard, it was now in shambles and needed major attention.

She was well aware of the school's existence since it had been established in 1974 -- some 35 years ago when it was one of the first schools to be opened in her native area of Jugedhara, Dhading, Nepal. Jugedhara is a 2-hour uphill walk from Dhadingbesi, the district headquarter of Dhading district, which itself is about a 3 hour journey to Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu.

Bishnu Maya remembers when she first heard that the school was in decline. “There was even the talk of shutting it down,” she remembers. Around the same time, circa 2001, the school elected a new management committee and a new head teacher. The new management committee, along with the local members of the community, vowed they would restore the school to its former glory.

Starting in 2001, the new management committee scoured various ways to improve their educational status in the district. They knew that the Shree Lamaguru Secondary School was the only school in the nearby vicinity so it was vital that they take charge because failing to do so would mean that their children would have to walk for hours to attend another school. The school explored numerous options and alternatives for fixing the situation; they called in various organizations to help –- which some did.  However, one day a member of the local community heard about Room to Read and their Challenge Grant model and thought this would be a wonderful  opportunity to rebuild the school.

“The community needs to pitch in,” Bisnu Maya remembers thinking out aloud. The last time the community got together was to advocate giving the barren patch of land to the school. Now it was again their turn to help the school but this time they needed to be more proactive and engaged to ensure its sustainability.

The school called a meeting with the community. In the meeting, the members passed a motion that they would all come together to help build the school.  And, that same year, they did -– joining hands to clean, excavate and help in whatever way they could.

On November 24th , when the school was on the last leg of construction, Bishnu Maya, along with rest of the community, came waltzing in with a special spring in their steps. They helped to smooth over the land that would house the future playground for their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. Like swarm of bees, they came in droves and immediately started to work. Some of them brought their own tools, some used their hands and did whatever task was required. Despite their senior age, many grandparents like Bishnu Maya, also pitched in to help.

“It shows that how eager they are to build the school,” says Som Nath Nepal, the head teacher of the school.  It was due to him and Kaal Bahadur Gurung, the School Management Committee head as well as Musa Ghale, the head of the Construction Committee that the school is in such a progressive phase. The hard work and dedication put forth by these three was matched equally by the local community. The head teacher believes that the community, most of whom are under-educated or illiterate, “instinctively know the value of education” and came to help in the physical construction of the school.

Kaal Bahadur Gurung voiced the same opinion. “The community,” he says, “are more than happy to help.”

And, on the day when she hoisted up her granddaughter on her back, Bishnu Maya was joyous and celebratory. “I’m doing this for my granddaughter,” she said and then motioned to a cherub sleeping peacefully on her back. "One day, when she grows up, she will be able to look back fondly on her school. It was the school her grandmother help to construct."

-- Rishi Amatya

To learn more about our School Room program, click here.