Foundational learning skills

Big group of Sri Lankan elementary students jumping for joy outside, in front of a fenced greenery. The girls are wearing short-sleeve white shirts and white pleated skirts while boys are wearing the same shirts with blue shorts. Overlaid words read "Making Room"

Children need room.

Room to read, room to learn, room to grow.

They need room to build strong skills, to lead more fulfilling lives and to create a better tomorrow — for themselves, for their families and for their communities.

In this report, we are celebrating the many ways we made room for learning in 2023. This year, we successfully surpassed a significant goal set in our Vision 2025 strategic plan: to benefit at least 40 million children worldwide by 2025. Room to Read has now benefited more than 45 million children in historically low-income communities around the world, making room for these children to develop literacy and life skills in a dignified and gender-equal way. Behind this milestone are decades of strategic program development, evaluation, innovation — and your steadfast support.

As we celebrate this momentous achievement, we also recognize that there are still too many children who lack room in their lives for education. Your continued support is crucial as we embark on the work ahead. In the coming year, we will mark our 25th anniversary by sharing a bold new strategic vision for the next chapter of Room to Read’s story, one focused on accelerating and expanding our programs to ensure all children have room to read, learn and grow — creating lasting change.

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From our CEO

Dr. Geetha Murali in an Indonesian library reading with a female student. Children need room. It’s as simple an idea as it is profound.

When a child has room in their life for learning, when they have space to realize their self-worth and make their own choices, everything changes.

I first learned this lesson from my mother, who, at 13, refused to abandon her education and marry, as her mother and grandmother had before her. She created the space she needed — the space she deserved — to chart a new path. All the room I have had to pursue opportunities, to live a fulfilling life of my own making, is the result of my mother’s choice.

Room to Room is creating a world where all children have such opportunities, where all children have room to learn and create lasting change. And we’re making that room more quickly. I’m proud to share that we have exceeded our Vision 2025 goal to benefit 40 million children by 2025. To date, we have benefited more than 45 million children across 24 countries with foundational learning skills.

Read more from Room to Read CEO Dr. Geetha Murali

Making room for results

Our reach in 2023

45+ million children benefited across 24 countries. 2023: more than 10 million active children benefited. 9.9 million active children benefited through our Literacy Program. 2.7 million new books distributed. 72,531 educator trained. 786,941 active children benefited through our Girls' Education Program. 96% of student participants advanced to the next grade. 422 teachers and 231 government officials trained in the delivery of life skills education.

Making room for more children under our iconic roof

The symbol of a roof has been part of our identity since the very beginning. At first, that roof housed books. It created room for reading, room for children to build strong literacy skills. As our programs have expanded to benefit more children in more ways, so has the room we’ve created. Our roof now houses more. Room to Read is making room for literacy and life skills that promote gender equality. We are making room for foundational learning.

We updated our visual identity in 2023 to align with our programmatic evolution. In our refreshed logo, our roof mark and our name stand simply yet powerfully for the room we create — physically, virtually, temporally and conceptually — for children to learn.

Learn more about our new look

Making room for gender equality

In honor of International Women’s Day 2024, Room to Read partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to broadcast our award-winning series She Creates Change across Asia, significantly accelerating our goal to reach all 432 million adolescent girls in the world with inspiring and educational content.

Presented in a series of six animated shorts with accompanying live-action mini-documentaries, She Creates Change features the narratives of six courageous young women from historically low-income communities in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Vietnam. Episodes portray how each girl confronts challenges unique to her life — such as harassment, food scarcity or early marriage — by advocating for herself and her future.

DISCOVER SHE CREATES CHANGE

"I see a little Ambika in all the girls I now mentor."

Ambika is a proud older sister — a didi in Nepal. Since 16, Ambika has been her family’s primary income earner, supporting her parents and four younger siblings. She completed her education, too, and ensured her siblings did the same.

Ambika now sees herself as didi to dozens of girls in Room to Read's Girls’ Education Program. As a social mobilizer, Ambika provides one-on-one mentoring and support. She also facilitates life skills lessons, helping girls navigate the many challenges of adolescence, complete secondary school and address gender inequalities affecting their lives and communities.

"If not for the voice of my own didi — my Room to Read mentor — echoing in my head, I would have given up on everything."

Read Ambika's story

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Making room for learning: 2023 program highlights

Room to Read Cambodian students eagerly raising their hands in class.

Foundational learning skills

Bringing read-alouds to pre-school classrooms in Sri Lanka

Our literacy team in Sri Lanka partnered with the Central Provincial Ministry of Education to support the development of pre-school teacher trainings focused specifically on the power of reading aloud. Trainings underscore the crucial role that interactive, teacher-led oral readings play in helping children build vocabulary, improve comprehension, and, importantly, develop social-emotional skills like problem-solving, perspective-taking and emotional-relating — skills that all children need to learn. By initiating a practice of group read-alouds in pre-primary school settings, we are making room for young children across Sri Lanka to enter the early grades with a strong foundation for learning.

Initiating climate justice clubs in Vietnam and Nepal

To address the mounting challenges of climate change, we need climate justice education — education about the science of climate change as well as its social ramifications related to gender equity. When children of all genders understand the gendered consequences of climate change and gain the skills to act, entire countries can benefit from improved life outcomes.

Our teams in Vietnam and Nepal recently introduced climate-focused content to our girls’ education curriculum. In Vietnam, lessons on climate justice were initiated at two secondary schools in regions of the Mekong Delta most threatened by saltwater intrusion. Implemented in partnership with the Vĩnh Long Provincial Department of Education and Training, Room to Read’s climate content aims to engage more than 250 children over the next two years in discussions on the intersection of climate change and gender inequality.

And in Nepal, climate justice sessions were implemented at 12 schools in the Banke District, a region at risk of worsening floods. Content is currently supporting more than 600 girls in Grade 6 as they gain the knowledge and tools required to tackle pressing climate challenges.

Join a lesson on climate change

Guiding national textbook revisions in Uganda

After successfully adapting and distributing Room to Read storybooks across two districts in Uganda, and supporting educators in these districts with library training, Room to Read and local NGO partner the Reading Association of Uganda (RAU) collaborated with government partners to begin developing Grade 1 teaching materials.

Pleased with the quality of the content, the government requested that Room to Read and RAU work together to fast track a Grade 1 instruction book that would inform national textbook revisions. Room to Read and RAU collaborated with local teachers and school administrators, illustrators and designers to create instruction books and accompanying educator guides in two major local languages — Luganda and Runyankore-Rukiga — developing the initial content in just three weeks.

Learning from our Life Skills for Equality Project in Cambodia

A two-year pilot project initiated in 2022, our Life Skills for Equality Project in Cambodia provides life skills and gender education to adolescent boys so that they can succeed in school and life and become actively engaged in the fight for gender equality.

To better understand learning outcomes and help scale the project, our Research, Monitoring and Evaluation team designed a robust multi-stage, mixed-methods program evaluation. Results of the evaluation over the last year have shown that project participants have increased their awareness of gender-related concepts, particularly those that relate to puberty, sexuality and health, gender-based violence and limiting gender norms. The evaluation has also revealed that boys have become more aware of the quality of their interactions with girls and are acquiring key life skills essential to creating a more gender-equal world.

In response to the proven success of the pilot, Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport adopted Room to Read’s life skills curriculum for use in lower secondary schools nationwide, making room for all children in Cambodia to develop life skills that promote gender equality.

Learn more from our research

Making room for partnerships

We are grateful to all our global partners around the world and want to recognize some of our most generous investors who gave more than $50,000 in 2023, along with those who provided crucial gifts-in-kind. Learn about them here.

We are honored to have an extensive global network of talent from across the globe who generously donate their time, services and passion to help us deliver on our mission. Our achievements in 2023 are thanks to the contributions of our valued global board members, regional board members, advocates, ambassadors and volunteer leaders.

Making room for disruption

Driven by a belief in hassle-free ticketing that puts humanity first, ground-breaking nonprofit ticketing platform Humanitix gives 100% of their profits to charity. As a Room to Read partner since 2018, Humanitix has benefited more than 30,000 children around the world over the past five years, with their impact growing significantly as their business scales. Humanitix is changing the ticketing industry for the better, and in doing so, making it possible for thousands more young learners around the world to exercise their right to a quality education.

Making room for inclusion

With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Room to Read has partnered with Research Triangle International (RTI) to implement the five-year USAID Inclusive Primary Education Activity. This project improves early-grade reading skills of children with or without disabilities in primary schools in Cambodia in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. Room to Read has contributed to the design, development and rollout of teaching and learning materials and supported teacher-training colleges to institutionalize early-grade reading models. By the end of the project, we anticipate that more than 6,683 schools will have adopted the program, benefiting more than 700,000 students.

Making room for access

Driven by a commitment to enhancing everyday lives, Aesop goes beyond offering sensory products by uplifting the communities we serve. The Aesop Foundation, in partnership with Room to Read, supports communities impacted by exclusion and helps address significant global challenges.

In 2023, contributions from Aesop benefited roughly 3,300 children in Asia and helped distribute more than 50,000 new books to schools and students, ensuring access to a quality education. Together, we strive to create a more inclusive and educated world, believing that every step forward is a step towards lasting change.

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