About Us
Our Vision
Room to Read believes that World Change Starts with Educated Children. We envision a world in which all children can pursue a quality education that enables them to reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world.
Our Mission
Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, we develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond.
To read our plan outlining our strategic vision for our second decade, click here.
Brief History
John Wood, founder and executive chairman, launched Room to Read after a trek through Nepal where he visited several local schools. He was amazed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the students and teachers, but also saddened by the shocking lack of resources. Driven to help, John quit his senior executive position with Microsoft and built a global team to work with rural villages to build sustainable solutions to their educational challenges.
In founding Room to Read, John wove proven corporate business practices with his inspiring vision to provide educational access and opportunity to 10 million children in the developing world. His novel approach to non-profit management calls for:
- Scalable, measured, sustainable results
- Low-overhead, allowing maximum investment in educational infrastructure
- Challenge grants fostering community ownership and sustainability
- Strong local staff and partnerships creating culturally relevant programs
In 2000, Room to Read began working with rural communities in Nepal to build schools and establish libraries. The organization's geographic reach expanded rapidly as significant needs and opportunities were identified in Vietnam (2001), Cambodia (2002) and India (2003). The Asian Tsunami in 2004 provided a catalyst for entry into Sri Lanka followed shortly by Laos. We expanded to our second continent by launching Room to Read in South Africa in 2006, and then Zambia in 2007. In 2008, we began operations in Bangladesh.
Visit our History page for more information.
Programs
Room to Read has developed a holistic, multi-pronged approach to help children in the developing world gain the lifelong gift of education through four core programs:
- Reading Room — We establish libraries and stock them with local-language children’s books, original Room to Read titles, donated English-language books, games and furniture to create a child-friendly learning environment.
- School Room — We partner with local communities to build schools so children can learn in a safe, child-friendly environment.
- Local Language Publishing — We source new content from local writers and illustrators and publish high-quality children's books in the local language to distribute throughout our networks.
- Girls' Education — We provide long-term, holistic support enabling girls to pursue and complete their secondary education.
To increase the likelihood for success and long-term sustainability, Room to Read enlists community involvement and co-investment through our Challenge Grant model. Villages often raise a significant portion of the overall expenditure in the form of dedicated space, labor, materials and/or small amounts of cash. These challenge grants act as catalysts for community building while also maximizing the local participation and expertise brought to our programs.
We hire local staff, who are personally vested in their nation's educational progress and we empower them to make key programmatic decisions within their country. They are already familiar with the language, conditions, customs and governments and understand the specific needs of the educational system.
Visit our What We Do page for more information.
Awards, Honors and Press
Room to Read has been recognized for its work with distinguished awards, including: The Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Award, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Sand Hill Group Foundation's Social Entrepreneurship Award. In addition to these organizational awards, Founder and Executive Chairman John Wood has been selected for several honors, including the Draper Richards Foundation Fellowship, the Young Global Leader award from the World Economic Forum, and Time Magazine's Asia's Heroes Award.
Room to Read has been featured in many prestigious newspapers, magazines, websites, and television shows, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, the International Herald Tribune, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Town and Country, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Bloomberg, CNN, and PBS.
Visit our Awards and News & Media pages for more information.
Future Expansion
Room to Read is always expanding its work within its countries of operation. As for working in additional countries, we are currently working towards establishing Room to Read in Tanzania in 2011. We are also researching other opportunities and needs in Africa with a goal to register and launch programs in one or two additional East or Southern African countries after 2011. Beyond this, we continue to research Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East for possible future programming.
As always, we will keep our donors and interested parties abreast of expansion plans through our website,
quarterly electronic newsletters, and mailings, as appropriate.