Room to Read

Filed under Writing | 8 November 2003 | No comments yet

[ via Suhit Anantula ]

A post on Suhit’s blog pointed me to an interesting social project that goes by the name of “Room to Read”:

Room to Read’s mission is to provide under-privileged children with an opportunity to gain the lifelong gift of education. It was founded on the belief that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and taking control of one’s own life. We currently focus our efforts on Cambodia, India, Nepal and Vietnam, countries with a desperate lack of resources to educate their children.

To increase the likelihood for success, Room to Read enlists community involvement. Our challenge grants require villages to raise a significant portion of the overall expenditure (through donated land, labor, materials and cash) for building a new school, thereby allowing our cash donations to go further so that we can help more villages. We also establish libraries, computer labs and language labs in conjunction with schools whereby they contribute shelves, desk, and chairs. Our challenge grants act as catalysts for community building while also maximizing the local participation and expertise brought to our programs to ensure they are run efficiently and effectively.

In 1998, our founder, John Wood, was on a three-week trek around the Annapurna Circuit. He met a teacher who invited him to visit the local school. John was amazed at how warm and welcoming the students and teachers were, yet also saddened by the lack of resources. This school had over 200 children, yet the “library” had only 30 books. And those books were locked in a cabinet, because books were considered a “scarce resource”. The teachers asked him to help change the situation. The headmaster said: “All the children want to learn English, so that they can interact with trekkers, and maybe study overseas some day. Yet we are poor, we have no money, we can not even afford pencils, let alone books. Maybe you can help us”. John vowed to help, and the program has grown from there.

Room to Read is a dynamic, results-oriented organization. Since our inception as a non-profit entity in 2000, we have impacted the lives of over 120,000 children by : * Building 50 schools * Establishing over 500 libraries * Shipping over 200,000 books * Establishing 20 computer and language labs * Funding over 120 long-term scholarships

Another wonderful cause to work for ! Wish I can contribute to something meaningful like this, one day …

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