The Challenge
The concept of a school library is virtually non-existent in many communities throughout the developing world. Because so many people in the developing world survive on less than US$1 per day, children's books are considered luxury items. In some cases, not a single book is available to children to encourage independent learning, intellectual curiosity, and a lifelong passion for reading. Teachers lack the expertise and resources to establish libraries. In many cases, the few books in schools are not children's books, sometimes not in the local language or in English, and are locked up for safekeeping, keeping them out of the hands of young readers! Even when they have acquired the skills to read, many children do not have access to books to practice - and enjoy - these skills.
Without the existence of a children's book publishing industry, the variety of local language children's books available for young readers in many of these countries is severely limited. Books that reflect local culture in a thoughtful, artistic, and engaging style are in short supply. Without regular use, literacy can be lost! In addition, although many rural schools teach English, many have no English language books. If there are no children's books to engage children and help them learn English, their curiosity, motivation, and ability to learn English are all but lost.
Room to Read was founded in 2000 to address this simple need. Establishing libraries and filling them with children's books - both in English and in their local language through our Local Language Publishing Program - continues to be a cornerstone of our charter.
The Room to Read Reading Room Approach
The first step towards the lifelong gift of education is putting a book in the hands of a child. Room to Read seeks to facilitate this by establishing a library in every new primary and secondary school we build, as well as in many existing schools, through our Reading Room Program. We create a child-friendly learning environment, complete with as many as 300 to 1000 age-appropriate local language and English children's books, furniture, games, puzzles, and posters. In these libraries, students find books that expand their world, teach them new ideas, and equip them with critical life skills. Furthermore, as part of our Reading Room Program, we provide training on proper library implementation with three years of support, which includes the provision of additional children's books and further training for staff.
We establish reading rooms in several different types of settings: 1) schools we have helped to construct; 2) other schools that have applied specifically for a Reading Room; and 3) other environments where children have a need to learn, such as orphanages, children's hospitals, schools run by other non-profits, and community centers.
Library Rooms
The majority of libraries we establish are created in partnership with a school or community within an existing room. Because the school community provides us with a clean room, we are able to create a child-friendly learning environment, with both speed and relative ease.
One example of such a library is the Binh Xuan Primary School in Tien Giang, southern Vietnam. Here, the school board believed that having a library and books would be a great boost to the quality of education at the school and would be highly motivating for the approximately 900 students and teachers. Upon approaching Room to Read's Vietnam team, they offered to appoint a dedicated librarian to run the program. The Reading Room established in late 2005 is divided into two parts: one area for book keeping and housing the books, and one area where students can sit and read the books. Located on the main floor of the school, the room has been renovated and equipped with lights and electric fans to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for the students. All bookshelves, reading tables and seats have been colorfully painted. These reading tables and seats are perfect for primary school students. In a special area, bright foam covers the floor; here, students can sit on soft pillows to play with educational games and read books. Over 600 English and Vietnamese books await eager students. In addition, fun educational posters are on the walls to attract students and inspire curiosity and an interest in reading.
Library Construction Projects
Several of our local teams have discovered that many highly-populated schools wish to partner with us to establish larger libraries, but they simply do not have the capacity to dedicate rooms, as their schools are already too crowded. As a result, in 2005 our Cambodia team came up with a new approach - Library Construction Projects. LCPs, as we call them, are stand-alone library buildings, which we construct and then furnish as we would our library rooms.
Special care is taken to construct these buildings as exemplary facilities for both the school and the community in order to further promote the value of education in the hearts and minds of the entire community. We use local architectural styles in order to promote local pride and empowerment. Some of the library construction projects are built in conjunction with our Computer & Language Room Program. These buildings include a fully-furnished library as well as either a computer or language lab.
One example of our library construction projects is the Teuk Thlar Primary and Junior High School located in the province of Banteay Meanchey in the northwest part of Cambodia. With nearly 2,000 students, the school's tiny library - two shelves, one table, and 200 books - was far from adequate. Despite the relative dearth of books in the library, it attracted many students daily. Unfortunately, the books were very limited, and neither the school nor the community could afford to construct a good library building or to improve the existing one room. By partnering with the community, Room to Read changed this: with the community contributing funds, labor, and security, the library opened in September 2005 and had already received over 5,000 unique visits in its first few months of operation.
We expanded the LCP construction to Laos and Nepal in 2006, and we will continue to grow this important type of Reading Room so that all children, regardless of their school environment, can easily access children's books.
Other Reading Room Projects
The unfortunate situation in many school communities is that there is simply not enough space to have a room that is fully dedicated as a library. Rather than walking away from this all too common occurrence, our local teams find innovative solutions to best meet the needs of avid readers. We have established libraries in classrooms and community centers and have created mobile book carts that can move from room to room to ensure that children have access to books. In some cases, these projects have been so well run that we've found ways to expand their library access, either through a Library Construction Project or by finding a way to create a library room.
Books
We have donated over 2.2 million books and published an additional 2 million books - representing 226 new local language children's titles - to fill our library shelves! In Nepal and Cambodia, not only are we are the largest non-profit importers of English language books, we are also one of the top publishers of both Nepali and Khmer children's books.
The vast majority of our children's books in English are donated by or purchased at a high discount from large publishers such as Scholastic Inc. and Chronicle Books. We are then able to ship thousands of books at a time to our partner countries. These English children's books are supplemented with our self-published local language books so that children have books in their own language as well as in English in order to foster the love for reading.
We typically establish a Reading Room with an initial donation of several hundred books in order to evaluate how efficiently the books are used. If, within six months to a year, they have a check-out system in place and children are spending time in the library reading, we will give a second donation.
Our Challenge Grant Model
As part of our strategy, local communities partner with us through our "Challenge Grant" model. If a school would like to partner with us to establish a library, we require them to support the project by dedicating space, providing a dedicated librarian who undergoes Room to Read training in library skills, and, in the case of the Library Construction Projects, materials and labor to aid in construction. In this way we ensure that the schools are committed to the library and will therefore continue to sustain it.
Reading Room Results
To date, Room to Read has established over 5,160 libraries in our partner countries. These libraries come in all shapes and sizes, but have a very common element - our local team works with the community to determine how to best provide access to children's books and create a child-friendly environment.
| Country | Total Thru 2007 | 2008 (Projected) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cambodia |  |
996 | 123 |
| India |  |
1530 | 810 |
| Laos |  |
362 | 170 |
| Nepal |  |
1728 | 400 |
| Sri Lanka |  |
245 | 210 |
| Vietnam |  |
241 | 110 |
| South Africa |  |
65 | 55 |
| Zambia |  |
- | 50 |
How You Can Help
"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."
- H.G. Wells
Remember when someone read to you as a child? Remember your favorite book? Its shape and print? The colors of the illustrations? The dog-eared, much loved favorite pages? All children have the right to a memory of their favorite book. With your gift, you can make such a memory possible for a young child today!
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Donate to the Reading Room Program - Make a donation towards reading rooms in a particular country, to the program in general, or leave it up to Room to Read to best allocate your contribution. |
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Sponsor the establishment of one or more libraries or one of our Library Construction Projects. |
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Learn about volunteer opportunities with Room to Read. |
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Sign up for our quarterly electronic newsletter to get updates on the organization, our programs, and more. |
"Before I saw the colorful Room to Read books, I thought reading was only for homework. Now, I can read books that are fun and learn about other places and animals."
- Puja, Class 6, Masbar, Nepal
