Students Helping Students - Frequent Questions

1. Can I go visit Room to Read’s programs in those awesome countries?
   Absolutely! We’re all about transparency and celebrating our success with our supporters. Learn all about it on our group site visits page.
2. I’ve raised a bunch of awareness and money for Room to Read. Can I tell you where I would like it spent?
   First of all, thank you for your hard work and energy! And yes, of course, you can tell us where you would like it spent. Maybe you would like to support libraries in India or girls’ education in Sri Lanka. Just let us know by keeping in touch with us at students@roomtoread.org.
3. I just ran a book drive and have all of these gently used books to share. Where can I send them?
   Congratulations on a successful book drive! Because Room to Read focuses on stocking its libraries with local language books (and not English-language books), chances are your beautiful books wouldn’t get used very much in our libraries so we would love it if you gave them to another well-deserving organization. If you could find another place to send them, we bet they would really appreciate those beautiful books! Our friends over at Better World Books are the book drive experts. Go check out their work! They sell used books on our behalf and donate the proceeds to Room to Read to help fund all of our programs. They make it incredibly easy for donors to send the books to them by paying for shipping! Check out their literacy partners here.
4. Can we have a sister school?
   That sounds like fun, but we’re just not set up to facilitate a relationship between schools. Sorry! There are so many great organizations that specialize in that one-to-one relationship building and we recommend that you find them and start writing some awesome pen pal letters!
5. What’s Room to Read’s favorite animal?
   While all animals are pretty great, we really love yaks. Room to Read, back in the day, was born on the backs of yaks and we love how sturdy, reliable, and goofy they are. What’s your favorite animal?
6. Can someone come and present at my school?
   My class would love to learn more! That’s great news! Please email students@roomtoread.org and tell us about it. We can’t make any promises but we’ll see what we can do!
7. Can I volunteer in the schools in Asia and Africa?
   That also sounds like a lot of fun, but these schools are locally-run, locally-built, and locally-managed schools. We have learned that by having communities co-own the projects, it leads to longer term sustainability. In fact, our programs are initiated and managed by locals. We bet you’re really handy, so maybe you can find some other organizations that specialize in volunteerism overseas. We do, however, encourage our supporters to visit the work to see the power of education first-hand. Please see our group site visit schedule if you will be traveling in the area and would like to see our work.
8. How much of my money actually goes towards your programs?
   That’s a great question and it sounds like you’ve done your homework. About 83 cents of every single dollar is spent on our quality educational programs. If you’re curious if that’s a good amount, check out our page on Charity Navigator which will tell you that it is!
9. How do you select the places where new schools are built?
   It’s a big, long process that can be condensed into this:
   1) The village must request our service.
   2) The village must truly need a school, either because the existing one is dilapidated or because the school age population demands it.
   3) The village must accept our “Challenge Grant.” That is, they must manage the construction, invest in the project (materials, labor, land), and use a safe and cost-effective blueprint.
10. (Insert country here) is SO important to me and you’re not working there yet. When are you planning on expanding into (insert country here)?
    We know there is such a great need in that specific country and we would love to be everywhere we are needed! Our expansion plans are directly related to the amount of support we receive, so help us out!
11. Why should I help students in other countries when there is so much need in my own country?
    We certainly think that every individual should support their own country. But we also feel very strongly that it's important to help others. In many of the countries where we work, your money can go a lot further meaning that even small donations make a big difference!
12. Where can I find stories about what’s happening in the countries where Room to Read works?
    We’re so glad you asked! Our blog is a great place to start. Our amazing teams tell us some pretty powerful stories and we’re thrilled to share them with you.
13. Does the work you are doing in these countries mean you support their governments?
    We act as a non-governmental charitable organization. We partner with governments to some extent to implement our educational projects, but this is not central to our strategy. Our programs are mainly focused on supporting communities that request and desire our help. We partner with them in order to "help them help themselves".
14. Why did you start your work in Nepal? In 1998, our founder, John Wood, went on a three-week hike around the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. 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. 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.
15. What do kids in other countries like to read?
    Children in other countries love to read books about animals, kids from other cultures, and places they have never been. They often like to learn about geography and history. Our Local Language Publishing Program allows us to publish new children's books in local languages (such as Nepali) so that we can continue to offer more options to kids around the world.
16. I have a question that’s not here. Help!
    No worries! Please email your question to students@roomtoread.org and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can! You can also look at other frequent questions related to Room to Read here.