Room to Read Blog

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.

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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.

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.

World AIDS Day 2011: A Special Message from Room to Read

Every year since 1988, World AIDS Day has been celebrated on December 1. It is a time to unite against a disease that has claimed millions of lives over the past three decades and look forward to a cure.

While nearly all of the countries where Room to Read works have been touched by the AIDS pandemic, two of them—South Africa and Zambia—have been hit particularly hard. Many of the children we work with have lost family and friends to the disease.

But today—on World AIDS Day—we bring you a message of hope. The truth is, all across the globe right now there are NGOs, governments, community organizations and private citizens fighting HIV and AIDS where it is most prevalent, and making an impact. As the global community anxiously awaits a cure to HIV/AIDS, it is important that we recognize and invest in the tools we have right now to turn the tide—tools like education.

Enjoy our video message and leave a comment to let us know what you'll be doing this year to commemorate World AIDS Day in your own way:

 

Learn more about our work in Zambia and South Africa.

Parents in South Africa Celebrate Mandela Day by Giving Back All Year Long

In 2009, the United Nations officially declared July 18 as Nelson Mandela Day, which also happens to be Mandela’s birthday. As a birthday present to the man who spent 67 years in politics serving his people, South Africans and others around the world spend 67 minutes on July 18 in service of others. The hope is that their collective efforts will effect positive change in the world.

Here at Room to Read, we are firm believers that small acts of service can have big results, so we asked our team in South Africa’s Eastern Cape how some of the members of their community would be celebrating Mandela Day. What we found were three parents who have taken Mandela’s creed of service to heart, but have gone above and beyond the traditional 67 minutes—volunteering in their local libraries all year long.

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Ms. Nomathamsanqa Payiya has been volunteering full-time at Lumanyano Public School since January 2010. She was inspired to take an active role in the library when she learned that her son, although in 7th grade, had not yet learned to read well.

When the principal of her son’s school, Mr. Jongilanga, announced in a parents' meeting that Room to Read had established a library at the school, and that he needed assistance from parents to operate it, she jumped at the chance. For Nomathamsanqa, having a library in her community—an informal settlement with an extremely low literacy rate—is a dream come true.

Even though her son has now moved on to the local secondary school, Nomathamsanqa continues to volunteer Monday through Friday—helping young readers with their homework, reading aloud and making book recommendations to new visitors. She also assists the head librarian with book processing, classification and display of the reading materials.

For Mr. Jongilanga, having such dedicated volunteers is extremely important. Parents like Nomathamsanqa, he says, not only allow the library to run smoothly, but forge a tighter bond between the school and the community. Recently, the parents of the school got together, inspired by their children’s enthusiasm for reading, and asked Mr. Jongilanga to open an Adult Education Center on the premises and start a reading club on weekends.

Having only completed her schooling up to 7th grade, Nomathamsanqa is proud to be helping the children of her community become independent readers and complete their education. She reports that attendance at the library increases everyday, with many children becoming “regulars” who visit on a daily basis.

A few miles away, at Msundulo Primary School, our team met two other adults that are Room to Read library regulars. Mr. Kholisile Nelson Felani is the chairperson of Msundulo School Governing Body. His dream is that his children complete their education, as he never had the opportunity to do so.

As part of the School Governing Body, Kholisile helps to ensure operations run smoothly. He initially participated in the construction of the library building, and since then has volunteered on a weekly basis—stamping library books, updating check-out logs and tidying up the facility.

Kholisile is glad to have a library in town because of his neighborhood’s high rate of illiteracy. He encourages the local children to spend as much time reading as possible, and views the community’s investment in education as an important step in lowering the crime rate.

Among other benefits, he says the library’s inclusion of newspapers and magazines among its materials allows adults in the community to keep abreast of local news and search for employment opportunities.

Ms. Noluthando Kame also volunteers in the Msundulo school library. With two children at the school, she relishes any opportunity to be a part of their education. When the library assistant passed away early this year, Noluthando volunteered to take over without hesitation.

Having completed her own education a few years ago after passing the high school exit exam, Noluthando loves reading, and makes it a point to help slower readers improve by leading spelling games and word puzzles. She has become a mentor in the community for many students, and says she is continually inspired to serve by the dedication her community’s school has shown to providing a quality education for all its students.

Thanks to the commitment of parents like Ms. Payiya, Mr. Felani and Ms. Kame across South Africa, it's clear that Mr. Mandela's legacy of service continues to inspire.

Learn more about our programs in South Africa.

Taking Literacy to New Heights

We’re always amazed by the creative (and yes, sometimes extreme) fundraising campaigns that Room to Read supporters come up with. Take, for example, our friend Rob Hart…

Rob has been climbing some of the world’s tallest peaks at the rate of one per year since 2003. The South African native (now based in Singapore) says he understands that, “the attraction of frozen digits, howling winds, and inedible food eludes many,” but none of those things were going to stop him from summiting the world’s tallest peak, Mount Everest, this year. And what’s more, he decided to turn his personal quest into a fundraiser for Room to Read, and carried a flag with our logo on it all the way to the top. 

Hart says he chose Room to Read as the beneficiary of his efforts based on our record of efficiency—having grown up in Africa, he says, “I’ve seen the amount of money wasted by NGO’s on Land Rovers and the like across the continent, it was heartening to find a charity that doesn’t waste money.” He chose to designate the funds raised to projects in Nepal, where he would be climbing, and South Africa, the country of his birth.

Hart reached the summit of Everest on March 14, and hot on his heels is another group of Room to Read supporters—13 work colleagues from Penguin Group in the UK. For some, the Everest Base Camp Trek will be their first major climbing adventure, like Helen Atkinson, who describes herself as “a fair-weather walker that’s never been at any kind of altitude.” She and the rest of her group will commence their journey on October 22, and will finish with a visit to Room to Read's projects in Nepal. We wish them the best of luck!

Feeling inspired? You don't have to be a mountain-climber to start your very own fundraising campaign for Room to Read.

Photo credit: Rob Hart atop Mount Everest (courtesy of subject).

Freedom to Learn: A Guest Blog from South Africa

Chris Mothupi, Room to Read's Country Director in South Africa, recently attended an awards ceremony organized by the Mpumalanga Department of Education to recognize schools in the province that are demonstrating an outstanding commitment to using their library. The winner of the “Library of the Year” award happened to be a Room to Read library and in today's blog, in honor of South Africa's Freedom Day holiday, Chris shares how the students came prepared with a few words to express how their library has given them the "freedom to learn." 

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“Room to Read, where were you during that time when we struggled for education?
Where were you during those days when we did not have libraries that brought us liberation?
But we forgive you now because your birth in South Africa brought us knowledge,
Because of you, children from schools are now able to read, write and broaden their knowledge.”

These lines come from a poem that was written and presented by first graders from Malwana Primary School during a ceremony I attended on March 18 in honor of the provincial library week organized by the Mpumalanga Department of Education. The occasion was to recognize schools that have shown significant improvement in the usage of their libraries by students and teachers, and of the 300 primary and secondary schools that participated in the competition, Malwana Primary School stole the show that day as it scooped up the prestigious “Mpumalanga Provincial Library of the Year” award.

Their win and the fact that the children were so inspired by their library as to write a poem about it, swelled me with immense pride. But it was their metaphor of a  library as a liberator to knowledge that takes on special significance, because today is South Africa’s Freedom Day holiday. It was on April 27 in 1994 that all South Africans had the opportunity to vote in the country's first post-apartheid democratic election. We celebrate this day because it is a reminder to us of how Nelson Mandela, an icon of liberation for me and many of my countrymen, inspired change and acceptance in an historically divided nation. [See Chris’ guest blog about Nelson Mandela International Day.] 

 

I remember well what Mandela implored on a day that I was honored to hear him speak. He said children must go to school and learn, because how can you have freedom if you do not have education?

 
Room to Read began working at the Malwana Primary School in 2009 when, in collaboration with Mpumalanga Department of Education and the community of Manyeleti village, we converted one of the school's unused classrooms into a library. Shelves, library desks, tables and books were soon provided and the teachers and the school’s governing body members, along with the principal Mr. Rambele, were also trained by Room to Read on library management and ways to engage students in library activities to enhance their literacy skills. Mr. Rambele and his staff then took it upon themselves to work diligently with the local village chief to mobilize the community and encourage children and parents to visit the library and make use of the resources on regular basis.

Today, the library is fully utilized by students and teachers from the Malwana school and the larger Manyeleti village. During the weekday afternoons and on Saturdays it remains open for neighbouring schools and communities to access. By establishing the library at the this school and in this community, Room to Read has contributed significantly to the villagers’ newfound appreciation of the empowerment that comes with being educated.

But, for me, it is not Room to Read's presence that makes libraries at schools like Malwana Primary School successful. Instead it is what those schools and teachers and students do with the resources, and the community's dedication to supporting them, that will make an everlasting impact on their education. It is an education that is essential to their continued freedom to make informed choices, and I am confident that Room to Read will continue to be a catalyst for change in South Africa by giving children the "freedom to learn." The Malwana Primary School is a testament to that.

To learn more about Room to Read’s work in South Africa, click here.

Brrr-aving the Antarctic to Build a Room to Read Library

Room to Read donors often come up with the most creative ways to raise money to support our work. Last December, Frank Rohde, CEO of a software company in San Francisco, ran a marathon in Antarctica to raise money for Room to Read. In this guest blog, he shares his impressions and experiences of this breathtaking trip.

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When the Russian cargo plane touched down on the blue-ice glacier near the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica, I knew that this adventure was getting serious. After having waited six days on the southern tip of Chile for weather clear enough to fly across the Drake Passage, the group of 37 runners I had joined on this trip finally got the “all clear” to take off. The flight from Chile to Antarctica took only four hours but it was four hours into an expanse that defies description. Larger than all of Europe, colder than any other place on earth, windswept and desolate—but with 24 hours of daylight. No one really knew what to expect, so when the doors of the plane opened and the stepladder was put onto the ice, my breath was taken away—by the biting cold as well as the magnificent views. I stepped onto the ice filled with excitement about the next four days in Antarctica.

The reason I was here was to compete in a marathon—or at least to reach the finish line—and in the process raise enough money to build a Room to Read library in South Africa. I’ve been a runner since I was a teenager and I complete at least one marathon every year. Last year I came across the Ice Marathon in Antarctica organized every year by a guy in Ireland named Richard Donovan. So I thought: here is an opportunity that allows me to combine a visit to the interior of Antarctica with camping on ice for a week and a real physical challenge!

After I signed up, I told a couple of friends and colleagues about my plans and got the same reaction from all of them: “You’re nuts!” I soon realized that this adventure was outrageous enough that I could use it as a charity fundraising vehicle, and remembered Room to Read from an article I had read in the Financial Times a year earlier. If I could raise $1000 for every mile in my marathon, that would cover the cost of a library. I spend a lot of time in South Africa every year for business and have grown very fond of the people there and decided to support a library project near Dutywa in the Eastern Cape in South Africa.

In addition to running, one of the things I’ve been doing religiously for almost 20 years is reading at least one book every week. I’ve always had an affinity for books and actually bought an old shipping container to store my own library! Of course I had brought a bunch of books on the trip to Antarctica, but now that I was here I forgot all about reading—this place was too exciting.

We spent the first day in Antarctica acclimatizing and on the morning of day two, we learned that because of the strong winds, the marathon was postponed one day. So, we filled the hours by sharing our own personal stories, and I learned that almost everyone was also raising money for a charity.

My fundraising strategy had focused on two groups: corporate donors and individuals. I had asked each of our clients to donate to Room to Read in return for branding and exposure during my run (their logos were on the running shirt I wore), and raised about $20k from institutions like Nedbank, ABSA, Bain Capital, Red Rock Ventures, Kobold Watch Company, and Silicon Valley Bank. I raised the rest of the donations from friends, colleagues, family, and other individuals. The day before the marathon, I had met my goal of $26,200 and with several donations from fellow runners and others, I ended up raising over $30,000 by the time I returned from my trip.

The marathon start was set for day three at 11am, and there was lots of excitement and several photo shoots that morning. Several of the stronger runners took off right away, while I fell into a comfortable trot towards the back of the pack. My goal was to reach the finish line and leave the winning to someone else. For the first two hours of the run, the weather was overcast and cold, but not too windy. The only challenge was staying close to the orange flags that had been planted in the ground every 50 meters because the visibility was pretty poor. After about 10 miles, the weather cleared up and we had blue skies and bright sun. As the sun warmed the snow, the running became tougher, and my feet kept slipping and sliding—but I surprised myself by finishing in five hours and 34 minutes and coming in 11th!

 
I know I wasn’t the only one who was proud of having achieved a physical challenge that day. But what I am most excited about is that I was able to use my own, somewhat selfish pursuit to help Room to Read build a new library for the school children in Dutywa. And now, on to the North Pole Marathon…

Frank's campaign has raised over $30,500 and is still accepting donations on our website. Not everyone can run a marathon, but there are many ways you can set up your own fundraising campaign and get involved.  

 

Education is a Priceless Gift: A Holiday Message from a Room to Read Donor

Gift-giving can take many forms -- from the simple to the elaborate -- but each gift carries a similar message of appreciation and affection from the giver to the recipient. Bonnie Campbell Hill, a long-time supporter of Room to Read from Washington state, shares her holiday gift tradition which continues to build bright futures for children in developing communities.  

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I’ve been in education as a teacher, a college professor, a consultant, and as an author of professional books. I’m also an avid traveler, growing up in Turkey, and working with international schools around the world as an educational consultant. I truly believe that the path toward peace and change in the world is through education.

Several years ago, my family and I decided that rather than giving holiday gifts to our long list of friends and family, we would take the opportunity to share some of the resources we’ve been blessed with and make donations to various charities. In searching for a nonprofit organization in which to invest that focused on international education, I happened upon John Wood’s book, "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World," and also had the chance to hear him speak. In Room to Read, I knew I had found an organization that not only embraced my belief in the power of literacy and education, but it is also making a significant impact for future generations in nine countries around the world. 

For the past five years through Room to Read, our family has supported girls’ education, local language children’s books, schools, and libraries in Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Nepal. Two years ago, we were even fortunate enough to visit one of the libraries we had sponsored in Nepal. It’s one thing to see photographs in a slide show or on a website, but it is an entirely different experience to actually visit a library and see the dramatic impact on the lives of so many children!

Recently I found out that I have a rare form of cancer for which I am currently receiving chemotherapy and scheduled for surgery. This sobering news made me pause and really think about the work I’ve done with literacy and how I could come up with a way to have an even larger impact on the lives of children. 

To do this, my family and I have decided to start a personal giving campaign with Room to Read to reach an ambitious fundraising goal of $400,000 to support literacy programs in India. Having spent much time working and traveling in India, I know how critical education is to ending the cycle of poverty in this area of the world.

The money we raise in our campaign, affectionately called "Bonnie's Big Idea," will be used to provide much-needed educational resources to children in four regions of India, including Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarkhand and Maharashtra. Children in these areas currently have little or nothing, but could, with education, change the path of their lives from poverty to opportunity.

I'm very proud that already several of our friends and family members have committed to helping grow our small idea into a big idea affecting the lives of thousands of boys and girls -- today and for generations to come.   

 

Please don't forget:

For ideas about how you can give holiday gifts that will have lasting effects on the lives of children, please visit our Holiday Gift Catalog. All gifts made online through the end of December will be matched 100% up to $500,000. You can also set up your own personal giving campaign on our website.

 

In Observance of World AIDS Day: Introducing An Unlikely Heroine for Children in South Africa

World AIDS Day was established by the World Health Organization in 1988 to raise awareness of a disease that has devastated generations worldwide. Every December 1, as we observe this solemn day, it’s hard not to be completely overwhelmed by the staggering statistics: 1.8 million deaths from AIDS in 2009; 2.5 million children worldwide infected with AIDS, and 30 child deaths from AIDS every hour. Of those infected by the disease, nine of every 10 live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

And while the numbers are daunting, one little hero is making a big difference to children in South Africa whose lives have been shattered by this ravaging epidemic. Her name is Thandi, and though she doesn’t have the notoriety or spell-casting powers of Harry Potter, her story is very powerful and has brought hope and comfort to some of the millions children who are ill or have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

Thandi is the heroine of a series of books produced by Catherine Groenewald and Room to Read’s Local Language Publishing program in South Africa. Thandi made her debut in I Could be Anywhere, written by Groenewald in 2004 after working with her friend, Sarah Oosthuizen, to establish a women’s sewing collective for an impoverished community in South Africa.  The local women learned sewing skills by making ragdolls, named Nosipho dolls, from scraps of material. It was here Groenewald and Oosthuizen met Gogo, a grandmother who was the sole bread winner for a large family in a community ravaged by HIV/AIDS, TB, poverty, illiteracy, teenage pregnancies and alcohol abuse. Groenewald remembers, “Forming a friendship with her, and seeing her daily life, the children around her and her personal struggles, made me want to tell her story.” 

In I Could Be Anywhere, Thandi, an orphan who has lost both of her parents to AIDS, moves in with her grandmother, Gogo, and together they make a doll named Nosipho from the scraps of Thandi’s deceased parents’ clothing. Through Nosipho, Thandi finds comfort and healing, and the two become inseparable. The second Thandi book, Nosipho Comes to Stay, written by Oosthuizen and illustrated by Groenewald, was published by Room to Read in 2007, translated into 11 South African languages, and distributed to Room to Read libraries throughout South Africa. 

Groenewald later produced three more books in the Nosipho series, two of which are Room to Read publications: Jingle-jingle in My Pocket, published in 2009, and The Big Secret, to be published by the end of 2010.
In addition to having the books about Thandi in our libraries, Room to Read South Africa partnered with two local non-profit organizations, ABC Stories and Siphosenkosi, to have the books and handmade dolls distributed to orphanages and children’s clinics throughout the country. Groenewald notes, “While speaking to a doctor, who works for Kidz Positive, an HIV/AIDS Clinic in Kayalitsha, Cape Town, I was struck by the huge burden HIV-positive children bear. They feel they must keep their status secret for fear of family scorn, reprisals and rejection by a sometimes uncompassionate community. The Clinic Sisters and counselors comfort and counsel these children - hopefully with the doll (as a tangible comfort) and book (gentle education about the truth) these children feel heard and less burdened.”

We all anxiously await the day we can close the book on the tragedy of AIDS, but until that day, we’re honored to be part of an effort bringing some comfort to children coping with extreme loss and sadness.  

Meet Thandi personally by reading Jingle-jingle in my Pocket via Scibd (and also check out Scribd's Read for a Cause promotion benefitting Room to Read).

Visit our website to learn more about our Local Language Publishing program.  

 

Finding Miss Gilchrist: Guest Blog from South Africa

Lisa Ellis, Room to Read Director of New Country Operations, visited our staff and projects in South Africa last week and met a teacher who personifies the values of Room to Read -- dedication to students and a love of learning.

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One of the most motivating teachers I ever had was my third grade teacher, Miss Gilchrist. She not only made learning fun and interesting by using pictures, books, and other materials in the classroom, but she very obviously loved teaching, and learning as well.  Her enthusiasm was inspiring as it was infectious -- even to an eight-year-old.

Imagine my happy surprise when I found a carbon copy of Miss Gilchrist teaching in a poor, rural primary school in the Eastern Cape, where Room to Read South Africa got its start. I was visiting the area last week for various meetings, but the highlight of the trip was a visit to one of our schools.

The road to the small village was dotted with cows and goats grazing on the hillside and near the road. We turned off the main road and travelled a few kilometers down a winding, pot-hole filled dirt road. Our destination was Makhazi Primary School whose student body included approximately 300 children and whose staff included an amazing teacher, Mrs. Vuyiswa Dlephu.

 Mrs. Dlephu had been trained as a librarian by Room to Read staff in 2007. She spoke passionately about all of the things she had added to the library since it first opened, such as  a corner section with current newspapers and magazines,  and a room filled with artwork made by the children and local posters about hygiene.  She described the assistance she gave the other teachers on how to test the children on what they learned from the books and other materials in the library.  Room to Read had not just found a teacher to train as a librarian, but we had presented a motivated teacher with the resources and professional development  to inspire her entire school -- teachers and students alike.

When I asked her how long she had been teaching, Mrs. Dlephu proudly told me 20 years -- it’s the only job she’s ever had.  She explained that while she had received her teaching diploma years and years ago, she had only recently finished her bachelor’s degree in education. She was then pleased to tell me she had just applied for a master’s program and planned to do her research thesis on needed improvements to the education system, especially as it relates to her community.

With a big smile on her face, she said, “I want to be a role model for my children and for all the children who have been through this school.  You can never stop learning!”  She went on to say, “I have always been a teacher and I always will be, no matter how much education I get. I will never leave this community!” 

I left that school hoping that the community realized what a tremendous, encouraging, motivating, and committed teacher they had in Mrs. Dlephu, the Miss Gilchrist of South Africa.

Read more about our work in South Africa on our website.