Room to Read Blog

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 Wood

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 (Room to Read Board Members)

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 Morris, Development Director for Room to Read

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 Wood

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

And the Results Are In! More than 4 Million Children Reached!

This week Room to Read announced its latest cumulative results numbers from year one (2000) through year nine (2009) and we're excited to report it all out to you here.

As many of you who are familiar with us know, Room to Read is a results-focused organization and we take great pride to set ambitious goals just like any other global corporation would do, and we work hard to meet them.  Each year, our nine country offices work closely with our Regional and Global office teams to set their program goals for the year ahead and this year is no exception.  As 2010 begins, our Asia and Africa teams have already started working on their program targets –- whether that means establishing libraries, publishing new children’s titles, building schools, or accepting more girls into our Girls’ Education program.

At the same time, through our database system (and thanks to the Salesforce Foundation), Room to Read tracks each program project and monitors its progress.  It is this same tracking system that allows us to accurately report out to our investors at the end of the year what their donor dollar helped us accomplish.

Without further ado, we are proud to share that through the end of 2009 Room to Read has…

Established: 9,220 libraries
Constructed: 1,129 schools
Published: 433 local language book titles
Printed: 4.1 million local books
Donated: 3.3 million English language books
Supported: 8,707 girls’ educations
Benefitted: 4,066,775 children!!

We had an incredible first decade and we thank you all for being such a significant part of our success.

As we always say around here, onward and upward and…just you wait…there is definitely more to come!

A Special Holiday Message from Erin Ganju, CEO (and video!)

Dear friends,

As we conclude another successful year at Room to Read, I would like to thank everyone in the Room to Read family -- staff, donors and volunteers -- for all of your support. Your commitment to our work has allowed us to reach new heights each year and has helped change the lives of millions of children throughout Asia and Africa.

I encourage you to take a minute to meet some of the children we have impacted through the video below. 

Inspirational images like these remind me how much our work means to our partner communities and our students and how excited I am, with your help, to reach further in the year ahead.

We have big dreams and I hope that you will continue your support and join with us in 2010 and beyond as we open the doors of opportunity for children throughout the developing world.

Thank you again and Happy New Year,

Erin Ganju
Co-founder and CEO, Room to Read

P.S. Inspired by the images of children enjoying their first book or library? If so, please consider Room to Read for your end of year giving.

Room to Read Joins Humanitarian Efforts to Help Displaced Children in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka

Room to Read announced today that it has joined humanitarian efforts to respond to the needs of the nearly 60,000 children living in the "welfare villages" in northern and eastern Sri Lanka that have minimal access to educational facilities to continue their education. Read the press release.

Room to Read announces new blog!

Room to Read is excited to unveil our very own blog where we plan to share stories from our projects in the 9 countries where we operate -- as well as stories from those supporters of our who are helping us work toward this important mission of educating the world's children.

Our new 2008 annual report

Our 2008 Annual Report is out and available for download!  We encourage you to read all about the remarkable successes and milestones we experienced last year, including the fact that over 3 million children now have access to improved educational opportunities thanks to our programs and your support.