This post is part of the ongoing series, Show and Tell, where we bring you photos and stories collected by Room to Read team members on the road.
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Today is African Freedom Day in Zambia, a holiday celebrating the widespread re-emergence of indigenous African leadership across the continent. In honor of this special day, we bring you a video shot by our team at Chinyuyu School in Chongwe District, where students treated Room to Read staff and some special guests to a performance celebrating the connection between literacy and freedom. Enjoy!
“How we treat women and girls is absolutely essential to who we are as a people.” —Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State
Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide—that’s the aim of Half the Sky, a groundbreaking documentary that will air on PBS October 1 and 2 across the United States. Inspired by the best-selling book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the film is aimed at galvanizing public action for the rights of women and girls.
Over two days, Half the Sky will take viewers on a tour of ten countries to explore the most pressing challenges facing women and girls around the globe, including maternal mortality, gender-based violence and human trafficking. It will also showcase tangible solutions to fight these problems, such as gender equality in education—highlighted for its uniquely transformative power to alleviate poverty in one generation.
Last fall, Half the Sky's film crew made its way to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to learn more about the success of our Girls’ Education program in the region. Led by our local staff, founder John Wood, author Nicholas Kristof and actress Gabrielle Union—one of six celebrity advocates in the film—met with several of the girls supported by our program, documenting their stories and learning about the challenges they face.
Those stories, along with others from Cambodia, Kenya, India, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Liberia and the United States, will be broadcast nationwide on October 1 and 2 in the United States on PBS. Until then, here is a sneak peek to tide you over:
This post is part of the ongoing series, Show and Tell, where we bring you photos and stories collected by Room to Read team members on the road.
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This week's Show and Tell comes from Eric Krassow, local-language publishing fellow. Eric is a leading editor from Pearson, currently "on-loan" to Room to Read exploring potential enhancements to our Book Publishing program around the globe. During a recent site visit in Nepal, Eric had the chance to meet a classroom full of eager young readers at Shree Kalika Primary School. He sent along this video of the welcome dance performed in his honor:
Our Girls' Education program currently supports more than 13,000 scholars in nine countries, each with their own story. For Ramdevi, this story includes being pulled out of the sixth grade to be married when her family could no longer afford to support her. Now back in school, Ramdevi is thriving in the ninth grade, and even makes time to help her brother with his own studies.
A noted American historian once said, “Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.” We couldn’t agree more!
In addition to helping children become independent readers and lifelong learners, one of the greatest benefits of a quality education is its power to expand children’s minds to a world of possibilities they never knew existed. Thanks to your support, six million children across the developing world now have access to such educational opportunities, and for this we couldn’t thank you enough.
But you don’t have to take our word for it…we met up with some of the children we work with (and their parents) to hear what they wish for now that they are getting the education they’ll need to turn their dreams into reality.
So sit back, press play and get ready to meet some of the young people whose lives have been forever changed thanks to you. From all of us at Room to Read, thank you for helping make wishes come true.
And for those of you still busily engaged in holiday shopping, don’t forget about our Holiday Wish List! Each gift you make in someone’s honor comes with a customizable e-card, and thanks to a few longtime Room to Read supporters, your gift will be matched up to $700,000! Unwrap World Change this holiday season, and start the new year off right.
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:
Over the past year, documentary filmmakers James Connolly and Rachelle Escaravage visited Room to Read projects throughout Asia. They met the children and communities that are benefitting from our programs, and recorded their stories on film.
Now those stories are the subject of six mini-documentaries, each focusing on one aspect of Room to Read’s work promoting literacy and gender equality in education. Over the next six weeks, we’ll be releasing those videos one at a time—providing you with a closer look at our programs than ever before.
The videos will take you to India, Laos, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, inside the libraries, homes, classrooms and communities of the children we serve. So grab some popcorn, press play and enjoy the show!
In the 2009 Room to Read Girls’ Education Yearbook, we highlighted the story of a former scholar in Uttarakhand, India, named Hema. When we last met Hema, she was balancing a job as a primary school teacher while tutoring younger students in Room to Read's Girls’ Education Program to support herself financially through university. In 2010, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science, English literature, and history. She is the first person in her family to graduate from both high school and college. Hema’s boss at an outsourcing company where she now works allowed us to catch up with her during working hours at her office.
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Seeing the 2009 Girls’ Education Yearbook for the first time, Hema shyly looked at the page profiling her story and smiled. Her boss leaned over her shoulder and asked to scan the pages. He explained that he wanted a copy to share with all of their employees and said, “We have been very happy with the program scholars working here. They are hard workers. I hope more will apply to work here in the future.”
After graduating from high school in her small village in Uttarakhand, India, Hema knew she wanted to continue her studies. She dreamt of studying at a university campus in the nearest city. Though her family’s finances couldn’t support this dream, Hema was determined. “I really wanted to continue studying, so I filled out the forms for distance learning education on my own. I had saved my salary from teaching and managed to pay the fee to submit the form myself,” she said. “I managed it all by myself.” In 2010, Hema was the first in her family to attend and graduate college, yet she still yearned to go even farther in her studies. She has now started working towards earning a master’s degree in political science.
Continuing to balance work and studies, today Hema sits proudly at her own computer with a company ID badge around her neck. After passing the entrance exams and interviews, she joined a rural outsourcing company a year ago. She is responsible for quality assurance and hopes she will one day move into a training position. She grins from ear to ear as she describes her work, “At this office, we are like a family; we don’t feel like we are in a job. There is no senior-junior divide. Whenever we have a problem, we can freely talk about it and discuss it. The work environment here is really good and it makes me feel very comfortable and good.”
Hema’s commute is an eight mile walk up and down steep mountain terrain, so during the winter months she rents a room closer to her office. “Financially, I support myself completely and manage my own expenses and pocket money,” she explained. Self-sufficient and determined to share her resources with her family, she also sends money home in addition to paying for her master's degree education. Hema casually adds that, “I also support the education of one of my brother’s children. I deposit their school fees. I feel proud that I have always had the support of my family for my education.”
As our conversation comes to a close, she eagerly returns to her office in time for a team meeting—making sure to take the copy of the Room to Read Girls’ Education Yearbook along with her.
All gifts matched through May 31! From now through the end of May, all donations to our Girls’ Education program will be matched up to $350,000. Honor mom—or any other special person that has shaped your life—by supporting the next generation of women. www.roomtoread.org/MayMatch.
Meet Marjory, a 14-year-old girl from Chongwe, Zambia, who dreams about being a lawyer so she can help bring law and order to local communities in her home country. Room to Read's Girls' Education program ensures that Marjory has the supplies, tools and mentoring she needs to complete her secondary education and accomplish her life goals. But Marjory's real inspiration is her mother, who went back to school as an adult to become a teacher after her husband abandoned the family. Learn more about Marjory's determination to continue on her path to education—just like her mom.
All gifts matched through May 31! From now through the end of May, all donations to our Girls’ Education program will be matched up to $250,000. Honor mom—or any other special person that has shaped your life—by supporting the next generation of women. www.roomtoread.org/MayMatch.
Education changes everything. It certainly did for eleven-year-old Inkham from Oudomxay, Laos. Inkham lives with her parents, two brothers and new baby sister and has a full day of helping her mother with cooking, collecting water and chores before school even starts. Inkam loves studying Lao language and writing essays while at school, and she dreams of graduating from secondary school to attend a university. Room to Read's Girls' Education program ensures that Inkham has the supplies, tools and mentoring she needs to complete her secondary education and succeed in her dreams. Meet Inkam below, and see why investing in Inkam and others like her through our Girls' Education program can change a life.
All gifts matched through May 31! From now through the end of May, all donations to our Girls’ Education program will be matched up to $250,000. Honor mom -- or any other special person that has shaped your life -- by supporting the next generation of women. www.roomtoread.org/MayMatch.
