Room to Read Blog

Through Story and Song: A Student and Her Ukulele Make a Universal Connection in India

Ellen Blanchard, a junior at Kenyon College in Ohio, spent a semester abroad in India participating in an internship program. She discovered how connected the world can be, especially if you happen to have a ukulele in hand.

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Have ukulele, will travel. This seemingly frivolous carry-on to India was the most important tool to have with me during my field experience at a local NGO in the state of Rajasthan in India. I chose to do my internship with the Urmul Marusthali Bunkar Vikas Samiti, a weaving cooperative and sponsor of various Indian development programs, including Room to Read. I had heard all about the Room to Read organization this summer from my mentor. It was so exciting to see the local work Room to Read does and to meet all the librarians from Urmul.

After staying in Phalodi at the Urmul foundation office, I moved to the village of Bhojesar and lived with a family for sixteen days. Coincidentally, one of my host brothers, Hukuma Ramji, was one of the librarians I had previously met in Phalodi! I was excited to have the opportunity to go with him to the schools in the neighboring villages and see the Room to Read libraries. The libraries were the biggest and most vibrant rooms in the school building—the walls covered in posters and shelves filled with books. At my visit to a school in Moriya, I brought along my ukulele and played my first concert in a Room to Read library. After my performance, the students shared poems and songs with me. Then everybody went outside to play a Hindi version of “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Hukama Ramji facilitated the game and I got to join in and play!

The ukulele was a big hit in Rajasthan. During my visit to a school in the village of Khitchan, which coincided with the official opening of their Room to Read library, I was the special guest from America with a ridiculous little instrument that wasn’t a familiar tandura (a local 5-stringed instrument). I practiced saying “ukulele” with the students after writing the Hindi pronunciation on the board. Then it was time for my second Room to Read library concert and my largest audience ever!

The students wanted me to read to them, but since I couldn’t read their local language, and they couldn’t understand my English, I resorted to using the illustrations and some silly character voices to entertain a very captive audience. After that, it was Library Time! In small groups, the students returned last week’s books and perused the shelves to pick new ones. They had to present their choice to Hukama Ramji, identify the book title and number and then sign their name on the book register. Every step of this process is an agent for empowerment: individual freedom to pick a book, the ability to sign their name, teaching responsibility and accountability and all the while interacting with a superb library teacher.

I took my ukulele on my semester abroad and had no idea the impact it would have on my interning experience. I only spent a short time in Room to Read libraries and I can’t stop thinking about what other new things the students are discovering in their libraries.

Learn more about our Reading Room program and our work in India by visiting our website.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...Room to Read Style

Twas the night before Christmas, and in library nooks,
Were millions of children reading Room to Read books.
The bookshelves were stocked by the librarian with care,
In the hopes that more kids would discover them and share.

These children had never seen so many choices,
Of books in their own language read by their teacher in playful voices.
And even after these children had read books and heard stories,
They found puzzles, toys and games -– these kids were truly in their glory.

With a focus on literacy and keeping girls in their classes,
In 10 years Room to Read’s education movement has reached out to the masses.
There are now libraries, books, reading lessons and schools.
And girls learning academics and life-coping tools!

Now Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Cambodia,
Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, Zambia and South Africa,
Can celebrate literacy and help kids by the million,
Because World Change Starts with Educated Children.

 

Please don't forget:

Unwrap world change through our Holiday Gift Catalog. All gifts made online through the end of December will be matched 100% up to $500,000.

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.  

 

A Picture Book is Worth a Thousand Words: CEO Erin Ganju Responds to The New York Times

We’ve long dreamt about the day the front page of The New York Times runs a story on children’s books (read it here: Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children).  Children’s books are what we live and breathe at Room to Read because of what they contribute to the development of a child’s literacy and learning skills.  It’s what we believe has the power to change the world and entire generations of communities living in poverty, particularly in the developing world.

Unfortunately, The New York Times’ story wasn’t exactly what we had envisioned, as it centered on the loss of retail sales of picture books.  In a down economy, that’s not surprising. What was surprising is that the decline in sales isn’t because children are no longer drawn to colorfully illustrated tomes; rather because parents are no longer recognizing the value picture books have in catalyzing their children’s literacy skills development.

Apparently, parents have begun pressing their kindergartners and first-graders to leave the picture books behind and move on to more text-heavy “chapter books.” One children’s book publisher noted a 35 percent drop in the number of picture books published in the last few years. The primary reason, according to those in the industry, is pressure from parents who are very mindful of increasingly rigorous standardized testing in schools.

We’ve actually seen the opposite hold true in developing nations, where picture books (or story books) remain a crucial tool in laying a solid foundation for literacy and life-long learning among children. In places like Sri Lanka, South Africa and other countries where Room to Read works, many children come from largely oral storytelling traditions and the shift to the written word is a difficult transition. Many of these children have never been read to aloud, and they find it difficult to relate the “spoken” word to the “written” word.

Picture books help bridge this gap because they give children the opportunity to explore, discover, learn, and imagine through stories and characters. Books inform and transfer knowledge, and are critical to the development of a child’s reading skills -- including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Picture books kick-start that journey because they combine visual and verbal narratives, often presenting imagery from children’s everyday lives which helps them connect life experiences to the pictures, information, events, and text. Even more, by discussing what they see in story books, children ask questions  -- which also helps develop their speaking skills, a key component of literacy. 

Literacy experts quoted in the news article were quick to point out that picture books are not for dummies, and they praise the genre for helping develop a child’s critical thinking skills. As a mother of a four-and-a-half-year-old, I couldn’t agree more.

My daughter Julia loves to use picture books as the basis of inspiration for story time with her captivated audience of stuffed animals. We’ll make a day of going to the library next to the park, and she will spend as much time selecting her next 10-15 books for the week as she does running around the playground. She loves books with lots of pictures because it gives her a sense of independence to “read” the story through the pictures. Now, at bedtime, Julia often wants to read me a story, and it’s my greatest joy to see her develop an enjoyment of reading -- reading is not a task or something she has to do, but something she does for play. And that’s key because the path to creating lifelong, independent readers starts when children see reading as fun and pleasurable on their own.

At Room to Read we’re committed to education, and so obviously, it’s a wonderful thing that children are able to read chapter books at an early age. But if you focus on just the skills part and prematurely force children to get to a certain level, it may be at the cost of developing good habits of reading. So we caution well-intentioned parents against hurrying to clear their kids’ bookshelf of story books, because in doing so, you’re clearing away the potential for a connection to books that children will cherish their entire lives. Instead, let’s work to develop a generation of independent readers who love to read, and read to learn.

Read more about our Local Language Publishing program on our website.

 

Are You a Member of the Conspiracy For Good?

We have to admit, we were intrigued when we were invited to join something called the Conspiracy For Good (CFG) –- a first-of-its-kind interactive experience from the imaginative and Emmy award-winning mind of “Heroes” creator, Tim Kring. To hear him describe the project in his own words, click here.

The idea was to combine Tim’s storytelling abilities with Nokia's Ovi platform to create a dynamic experience using interactive theatre, mobile and alternate reality gaming and more, to empower you, the audience, to take real-life action and create positive change in the world. It’s a unique blending of fact and fiction that they call "Social Benefit Storytelling."

If you haven't yet been following the conspiracy, since June, users from all over the world have been logging on to www.ConspiracyForGood.com and following the interactive mystery of a school library in the village of Chataika, Zambia, where a teacher (Nadirah) has gone missing, a shipment of books has been hijacked and a shady corporation may be behind it all. Sound intriguing yet? Followers are playing along and uncovering clues online that are furthering the narrative, and in doing so, they are helping to eventually build a real-life library stocked with children’s books.

Confused? Stay with us because here’s where we come in…

Uniquely interwoven into the fictional plot, Room to Read has become part of the Conspiracy For Good storyline operating alongside Nadirah, the main character, and the CFG collective, or secret "members” that are fighting the forces of social and environmental injustice. The good news is that in the narrative, when the books are found and Nadirah is located thanks to the Conspiracy for Good, Nokia will establish five real-life Room to Read libraries in Zambia, including one to be built at the Chataika Basic School (which really exists!). Plus, Nokia will fund the education of 50 Girls’ Education Program scholars in the country.

The "real" books for the new libraries will be furnished by Room to Read’s long-time partner, the Pearson Foundation, an organization that has teamed up with Nokia to establish a one-for-one giving campaign, whereby a new English-language book will be donated to a Room to Read library for every digital book read online at www.wegivebooks.com.

Catch up on the storyline here and join the conspiracy today to follow the clues and see if you can figure out what's next as the plot thickens.

And don't think we haven't had some fun with this as well! Already some ingenious trackers have cornered Room to Read Founder John Wood to get to the bottom of things. Here's what he had to say about the Chataika situation and being a Conspiracy For Good "member" ;)

To read the official press release, click here

Happy International Mother Language Day!

Today marks the not-very-well-known holiday called International Mother Language Day, a holiday that was proclaimed by UNESCO in 1999 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.   

The holiday originated in Bangladesh, a country that started commemorating what they called Language Movement Day after the Bengali Language Movement protested in 1952 against the declaration that Urdu would be the only official language for both West and East Pakistan (Bengali-speaking East Pakistan is now current-day Bangladesh).  Bangladesh still celebrates this holiday quite seriously and in fact, today, Room to Read Bangladesh organized activities for 81 of the girls supported through our Girls' Education program in the Siragjanj district.  The girls took part in story writing competitions, grammar exercises, and sang patriotic songs about their love for the Bangla language and their nation.

Each year, International Mother Language Day has a theme and the 2010 theme of "Rapprochement of Cultures" is a great reminder to us all about how language is a powerful tool for preserving and developing ones culture and heritage.  It is a theme that Room to Read addresses frequently through its Local Language Publishing program (LLP).  For many of our original titles, we encourage each Room to Read country to teach cultural identity, understanding, tolerance and dialogue through some of the local language books that they develop and publish each year.

Some examples from past years include Kapil, the Ant from Nepal, which teaches children about conflict resolution and peace, an important lesson for those Nepali children who have lived amidst Nepal’s political conflict.  Or, Nosipho Comes to Stay has tackled the difficult and sensitive subject matters of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.  In Sri Lanka, a country that recently emerged from years of civil war, Baby Fish Goes to School was a title that was printed in both Tamil and Sinhala and taught children that you can make friends with those that are different from you and even help one another (like helping a fish that lives in water go to a school that is on land). 

Room to Read now has printed 433 original local language children's book titles in 22 languages which represents over 4.1 million book that have been distributed throughout our libraries.  What languages you ask?  Count them here (in alphabetical order):

1. Afrikaans (South Africa)
2. English (India, South Africa)
3. Garhwali (India)
   
4. Hindi (India)
5. IsiNdebele (South Africa)
6. IsiXhosa (South Africa)
7. IsiZulu (South Africa)
8. Khmer (Cambodia)
9. Lao (Laos)
10. Nepali (Nepal)
11. Rajasthani (India)
12. Sepedi (South Africa)
13. Sesotho (South Africa)
14. Setswana (South Africa)
15. Sinhala (Sri Lanka)
16. Siswati (South Africa)
17. Tamil (Sri Lanka)
18. Telugu (India)
19. Tharu (Nepal)
20. Tshivenda (South Africa)
21. Vietnamese (Vietnam)
22. Xitsonga (South Africa)

Yes…WOW!  And, in 2010, we'll launch our Local Language Publishing program in Bangladesh and begin publishing in Bangla!  Which bring us back around to today: International Mother Language Day.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, stated, "The mother language, in which the first words are uttered and individual thought expressed, is the foundation for the history and culture of each individual. Moreover, it has been proven that children learn best when they are instructed in their mother language during their first years at school."

That's why Room to Read's Local Language Publishing program was created; it's why we pushed ourselves to make sure our Reading Room libraries are stocked with grade-, language-, gender- and culturally- appropriate books and other learning materials for children who access our libraries. And it's why we now have already printed over 400 local language books with another 117 slated for printing this year.

So, when you sit down to read tonight, celebrate the language in which your book is written and cherish reading those words while wishing yourself a Happy International Mother Language Day!

 

To learn more about our programs in Bangladesh, click here.
To learn more about our Local Language Publishing program, click here.

Guest Blog: Twitter Visits Room to Read Programs in India

Below is a re-post from Twitter's official blog from December 30, 2009.  We are re-posting it here with permission by the author.

When Twitter announced The Fledgling Initiative in October—making and selling wine to benefit an organization called Room to Read, I was thrilled.

This past month, my enthusiasm and commitment increased dramatically when I had the chance to visit some of the sites where Room to Read works in India.

Teachers and students in Hardiwar gave me the warmest of welcomes. I was given the opportunity to help children read books in English and one group of students even invited me to sing a song for them. My performance of Itsy Bitsy Spider (see above—pit stains included), sent the kids into fits of laughter.

The schools in these areas face incredible obstacles but the community approaches problems with passion and vigor. One school was having trouble with a dangerous elephant so parents volunteered to take turns walking the kids to school and would even sleep there for a night or two.  When I was little there were snow days but nothing like this. Seeing kids get excited about learning to read made my heart skip a few beats, and made me feel proud to work at a company that chooses to partner with world-changing organizations like Room to Read. Here are some of the photos from my trip and you can learn more about Room to Read at their web site.

-- Maggie Utgoff or @mutgoff, Twitter

Once Upon A Time in Sri Lanka…Part II

Seven-year-old Mohan is Mallika’s classmate who shares her love for story books and he is always all ears during storytelling time. (Read about Mallika’s captivating narration skills in Part I here).

Each day Mohan takes a book home; however, he can only enjoy the pictures because he struggles to actually read the books by himself.

Mohan’s teacher Ms. Nipunisa explains, “Mohan is a bright and enthusiastic student, but his reading skills are not in the same league as Mallika’s because he has no one at home to help with his studies or reading -- which means he continually lags behind.” Mohan comes from a broken home; he stays with his grandmother while his father works as a mason, often returning home long after Mohan has gone to sleep.

So Room to Read and Ms. Nipunisa decided the best way to help Mohan improve was to pair him with a classmate who could read along with him to help him practice. Mohan seems quite happy with the arrangement as he points to a classmate and says “I ask my friend Hasan to read out the stories to me and together we enjoy the book.”

His teacher acknowledges that even though Mohan is a slow starter, he is an eager student who loves school and never takes a day off. “Of course I love coming to school,” chirps Mohan. “I never miss school and I wish we did not have to sit at home on weekends. In school, I get to play with my friends and listen to the stories my teacher tell us every day. My favorite story is about a squirrel and a rabbit because I love animals. Someday I will keep a dog as a pet and write a story about him.”

Mohan’s aspirations don’t end there. When asked when he was plans to narrate a story like Hasan and Mallika, he is quick to answer. “The next time you come you will see me standing in front of the class and reading loudly,” says Mohan while flashing a thumbs up sign to seal that pact.

--Reena Luke

Once Upon A Time in Sri Lanka...

Ashoka Mallika is only seven years old but her storytelling skills can put a grandmother to shame! She volunteers to narrate one of her favorite stories and soon has every one in rapt attention.  She has an appealing lisp but it is her changing expressions that endear her to everyone. Suddenly she stops and sticks her tongue out. She has forgotten the name of some character in her story. Without wasting a minute, she rushes to the corner library and pulls out the book and opens the page and continues the story by reading it to the class.

She reads fluently, not faltering once and even manages to change the voice for different characters! It is obvious she is gifted, but Mallika is not the only one in her classroom who loves stories.

Most of her classmates love the “story period.” Each day, the class teacher, Nipunisa Devika, pulls out a book and reads a story to the students. She also encourages them to take the books home and tells the parents to spend some time with the children by reading to them but unfortunately, not all parents from this village know how to read.

Mallika is lucky because her father is a school teacher and her mother, a home maker, takes much interest in Mallika’s studies. Mallika also has an elder brother who indulges her by reading stories out loud to her.  “I have to fight with him to get him to read stories to me. After he finishes his studies, he is always playing with his friends and I have to wait a long time to hear a story from him.” On being asked why she troubles her brother. “Sometimes in the evening my mother is busy cooking dinner and I would be too sleepy by the time she finishes with her work. I cannot read that fast and I will have to return the library book without having heard the story if he does not read it out to me!” Mallika smiles and crinkles her eyes to indicate that it was a fair justification to fight!

-- Reena Luke

Meet Dr. Sindiwe Magona, One of Our Local Authors from South Africa and Voted Top 10 Best African Women Writers

Kim Morton, a recent addition to the Room to Read board of directors, just returned from South Africa and Zambia where she was able to witness Room to Read's programs and impact first-hand.

*****

South African writer Dr. Sindiwe Magona thinks African children need more stories about naughty girls and boys that can cook. And she should know! She's been voted Top 100 Best African writers and and Top 10 Best African Women writers. She's written over 100 children's books in all 11 of South Africa's official languages. Dr. Magona believes that if you want children to read, you must write exciting books, wild stories, fables, and mysteries.

Last week, when I sat down to talk with Dr. Magona in Johannesburg, she was intense and focused on the dire situation South African children find themselves in today. Grinding poverty, illiteracy, prevalent HIV/AIDS, and orphaned children are the daily reality. Twenty-eight percent of pregnant women (2007) were living with HIV, perpetuating the cycle of sickness for another generation. But, last week as I toured rural and urban South African schools and visited Room to Read's libraries, I saw real hope amidst these tough circumstances. Children love the refuge of their bright colorful books, they engage in their Room to Read libraries whose shelves hold Xhosa and Setswana stories like Dr. Magona's, and several of our libraries have dedicated librarians with time built into the curriculum to visit the library, be read to, play word games and even check a book out to take home. Think of the pride a child feels taking home a book and reading to an illiterate parent or grandparent.

Dr. Magona points out that in several different African languages, the word for a person who cannot read is "blind". "We can make a breakthrough!" she promises. "Right now our South Aftrican children are crawling while the rest of the world runs! If we make books interesting for kids, and we write them in their mother tongue, children will develop a love and a habit of reading." Room to Read agrees, and is fortunate to collaborate with Dr. Magona's vast expertise in children's literacy. She serves on Room to Read's Book Selection Committee, she helps to train aspiring young writers in South Africa, and she has served as a Judge for Room to Read's writing competitions which often receive hundreds of submissions in all South Africa's official languages. The winners of the competition are published by Room to Read and are then placed in Room to Read's libraries across South Africa so young children can read exciting books about their own cultures in their own languages.

"We are all born with  our hands tightly fisted, " says Dr. Magona. "That is where the Maker, the Universe places the talents we come bearing to the world. And it is only by using these talents that we can leave the world a better place than we found it. So do your bit. Sing if you must; Write if you must; but do your bit to make the world a better place."

To learn more about our programs in South Africa, click here.

To learn more about our Local Language Publishing program, click here.