Room to Read Establishes Foundation for National Literacy Program

Nepal was our first country of operation in 2000. Over the past 20 years, we have built strong ties with Nepal’s government. In 2015, Nepal was struck by two consecutive earthquakes, which destroyed or severely damaged large parts of the country’s infrastructure, including a reported more than 9,300 schools. Our Room to Read team saw a need for our support, and we immediately joined forces with the government to lead recovery and reconstruction efforts. We focused on Dhading and Nuwakot districts, which had some of the most severe infrastructure damages. Through this work, we completed 60 schools and 646 classrooms, supported 19,137 children, and trained 1,735 community members.

2020 Nepal Annual Report

Five Year Plan to Improve Primary Grade Literacy

Our work initiates systems-level change within the country. In 2015, we collaborated with the Ministry of Education to support their National Early Grade Reading Program, in partnership with USAID’s Early Grade Reading Program. This technical assistance project aims to support children nationwide read with fluency and comprehension.

Room to Read plays a key leadership role on the government’s technical team and helps develop teaching and learning materials to influence a national approach to Nepali early grade reading instruction. As of 2019, we estimate that the initiative has supported more than 560,000 students in Grades 1 to 3 across the country.

Risk Assessment Tool Supports Girls in School

To constantly improve our programs, we test new innovations. Room to Read Nepal piloted an early warning system to identify Girls’ Education Program students at risk of dropping out. The new system allowed us to quickly intervene with the support girls needed to stay in school. Over the course of the year, our team found that girls who exhibited certain risk factors were more than five times as likely to drop out as girls who did not. This data empowers our social mobilizers in Nepal to more promptly support girls by visiting them at home, mentoring them and summarizing the content of missed sessions. The system has been so impactful in Nepal that we’re now using it in other countries.