About Us - Our History

Room to Read was founded on the belief that "World Change Starts with Educated Children" - and that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. We strive to provide children access to education, one child at a time, one school at a time, and one village at a time. Through partnerships with local communities we work to create educational opportunities and establish educational infrastructure. Our efforts are currently focused in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, South Africa, and Zambia - all countries with a desperate lack of resources to educate their children. In addition to these countries, we continue to research expansion into new countries and new projects each year.

The Room to Read story begins in 1998 with Founder & Executive Chairman John Wood. In 1998, John was an overworked Microsoft executive looking for the quiet solitude of a trekking vacation. While backpacking in the Himalayas, John met a middle-aged Nepalese man who invited him to visit a school in a neighboring village. Hoping for a chance to see the real Nepal, rather than his tourist's trek, John agreed. Little did he know this short detour would change his life forever.

The man John met was a Nepalese "Education Resource Officer." However, John soon discovered that despite his huge heart and tremendous work-ethic (traveling mountain passes on foot to visit his schools), this man had very little resources to offer the schools in his charge. At the school John came face to face with the harsh reality confronting millions of Nepalese children - there were almost no books. John was stunned to discover that the few books they had - a Danielle Steele romance, the Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia, and a few other backpacker castoffs - were so precious that they were kept under lock and key... to protect them from the children!

As John left the village that day, the school headmaster made a simple request: "Perhaps, Sir, you will some day come back with books." His request would not go unheard. After returning from his trek, John emailed friends to ask for their help in collecting children's books, and was overwhelmed with the response - over 3,000 books arrived within the next two months. The following year, John returned to Nepal, rented a yak, and returned to the village to deliver the books.

On that trip, John made a decision. He would leave the corporate world in order to devote himself to starting a new non-profit. In his memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, John explains, "Did it really matter how many copies of Windows we sold in Taiwan this month when there were millions of children without access to books?" In late 1999, John quit his executive position with Microsoft and started Room to Read.

With Room to Read, John sought to marry the corporate business practices he learned at Microsoft with an inspiring vision - to provide the lifelong gift of education to millions of children in the developing world. He contended that with 770 million illiterate adults worldwide and 100 million children without access to school, a non-profit "with the scalability of Starbucks and the compassion of Mother Theresa " was required.

Beginning in Nepal, John and future Nepal Country Director Dinesh Shrestha began working with rural communities to build schools and establish libraries. To date, we have created over 7,800 schools and libraries.

In 2000, recognizing that in addition to the economic difficulties facing students in the developing world, many girls are also overlooked due to cultural bias, we began the Girls' Education Program. This scholarship fund is targeted at young girls and provides a long-term commitment to their education that lasts an average of 10 years. There are now over 6,800 girls on Girls' Educations.

In the summer of 2001, Erin Keown Ganju joined the team as Chief Operating Officer and was instrumental in our expansion into Vietnam, where she had previously worked for two years. Erin quickly became John's partner as the two of them continued to push hard to expand Room to Read's geographic and programmatic presence. With growing demand for our programs, we further expanded our work in Cambodia in 2002, followed by India the following year.

In 2003, Room to Read also began publishing local language children's books, in addition to the donated English-language books we use to stock our libraries. Because the children's book publishing industry is generally nascent in the countries where we operate, we work with local authors and local illustrators to develop new children's books and publish them in-country. To date, we have published 327 local language children's book titles.

2004 was another very significant year for Room to Read. We celebrated one of our first major milestones on April 29th when we opened our 1,000th library in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Later that year, just days after the December 24th Asian tsunami devastated thousands of villages, we made the bold decision to launch operations in Sri Lanka in order to rebuild schools and help ease the suffering of children there.

In addition to expanding into Sri Lanka in 2005, we began operations in Laos - our 6th Asian country of operations - in the middle of the year. Then on September 2nd, we opened our 2,000th library, once again in Cambodia - only less than 18 months after our 1,000th library ceremony. We ended 2005, with another big milestone - the donation of our millionth book.

In 2006, we completed a five-year strategic plan (see Our Vision for the Future) and expanded to a new continent by beginning work in South Africa. We began operations in Zambia in 2007, and in 2008 we have begun laying plans for expansion into Bangladesh.