COVID-19 Response

Education Resilience Fund

Recent surges in COVID-19, particularly in South Asia, are placing so many things beyond our control. Education doesn’t need to be one of them. In fact, education is a vital source of stability, comfort and hope for the millions who are grappling with challenges and loss. That is why we established our Education Resilience Fund, to support the children and families who are relying on education to help them get through this challenging time. Through the fund, we will be able to deploy resources where and when they are needed most, to ensure learning continues for children around the globe.

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Education Emergency Amid Surging COVID-19 Cases in South Asia

In the aftermath of the exacerbated COVID-19 pandemic in countries including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and as a new wave of the virus threatens the African continent, a worsening learning crisis that affected 1.6 billion children in 2020 is permanently disrupting the educations of children and heightening risks to young girls.

Room to Read’s work is needed now more than ever, as UNICEF reports one-third of the world’s children remain cut off from education due to inaccessibility to remote learning methods and 10 million additional girls are at risk of child marriage over the next decade. The World Bank is calling the COVID-19 pandemic “the worst crisis to education and learning in a century.”

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As an organization dedicated to education, we are doing everything we can to ensure that learning continues amid this surge. Our 600+ staff on the ground in India are reaching out to children and their families as they cope with COVID-19 suffering and losses, to provide both crucial safety information and educational resources. The remote learning methods we developed last year are proving incredibly valuable as the crisis worsens.

Resources such as our at-home literacy kit, parent handbook, read-aloud videos, radio and TV programming, and interactive voice response storytelling are helping us to enable children to continue their literacy journeys at home. Our social mobilizers are conducting active outreach to adolescent girls to help them use their life skills to navigate this escalating crisis. Qualities like communication, perseverance and resilience are vital, and our teams are deeply engaged in reinforcing these traits that can provide girls and their families with much-needed equilibrium and stability during this turbulent period.

For millions of children, this is a time of increased chaos, isolation and fear. We are working to provide them with a sense of continuity, stability, socio-emotional support and positive engagement through learning.

At Room to Read, our mission unites us, and so does our humanity. This work would not be possible without the compassion and generosity of our global community. If you would like to support our work to ensure education resilience during this continued crisis, please click here to make a donation.

“Education is the only thing that cannot be taken away. It is the key to fulfilling my dreams.” Parbati Girls’ Education Program Participants in Nepal

Help Education Endure

By the Numbers: The Impact of COVID-19 on Education

1.6 billion - children and youth have experienced school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic

463 million - children or 31% of students worldwide at risk of not catching up or dropping out of school entirely who cannot be reached by remote learning programs

72 million - estimated primary school children will experience learning poverty, meaning that they will unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10, as learning losses continue to grow

10 million - more girls will be at risk of becoming child brides as a result of the pandemic over the next decade

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Our Response in India

Education is a Fundamental Human Right

During this time of crisis, we must protect our students’ right to learn. Only through education can people build the skills and resources they need to best respond to crises like the one our global community is currently facing.

For some students, these closures will only be a temporary shift in their schooling before they’re back on track, but for many in the communities that we serve, this could mean the end of their education.

“The data suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic will have huge impacts on student learning across the world, but students in low-income countries and those in sub-Saharan Africa will be the most negatively affected. In these countries, governments have been less able to provide remote learning opportunities and guidance to teachers to address student learning needs during the crisis.”

- Brookings report, “School closures, government responses, and learning inequality around the world during COVID-19, Emiliana Vegas, April 14, 2020

Girls are Especially At Risk

“Progress lost takes years to regain. Teenage girls out of school may never return. Gender equality and women’s rights are essential to getting through this pandemic together.” António Guterres United Nations Secretary-General

A UN policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 on women says, “Evidence from past epidemics shows that adolescent girls are at particular risk of drop out and not returning to school even after the crisis is over.” 

Our Girls’ Education Program participants typically live in low-income, remote areas, making them especially likely to be forced to give up their educations permanently as a result of this crisis.  Girls in precarious financial situations are at higher risk of early marriage, sex trafficking or other forms of exploitation when out of school.

Help Education Endure

Your support will help ensure that education – an enduring gift with the potential to solve many of the world’s greatest challenges – continues within vulnerable communities. Please make a donation to give children around the world the stabilizing power of education during this time of upheaval.

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Our Response to COVID-19

Room to Read is not giving up on our students and we are working towards our mission with even more determination. We understand that there will be both immediate and long-term negative impacts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This isn’t the first time we’ve assisted countries facing extreme threats to education. We supported education infrastructure after the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and now during the refugee crisis in Bangladesh.

Our team is led by crisis response experts and our staff members live and work in the countries where Room to Read operates. They are local nationals with a deep understanding of complex community needs and cultures, plus strong government relationships that allow us to partner for maximum impact and provide learning using the most powerful tools and media available locally.

Our programs serve as an essential lifeline to the world’s most vulnerable children. To ensure that children in the most remote and low-income areas can continue learning, we’re prioritizing interventions that don’t depend on Internet connectivity – which is largely unavailable in the areas we serve – but human connectivity. Our staff are providing distance learning via channels that are most accessible to low-income children, including telephone, radio and TV broadcasts, and the distribution of hard copies of educational materials.

Learn More about Room to Read’s Award-winning Literacy and Gender Equality Interventions During the COVID-19 Pandemic >>

The Greatest Needs

We are adapting our programs and operations quickly to ensure that children do not lose precious time in their educational journey.

Designing new methods to facilitate distance learning, including radio and TV education broadcasting in areas without internet
Distributing print materials in local communities
Providing mentoring to girls by phone to support them emotionally through the crisis, provide encouragement for continuing their studies at home, keep them informed on how to stay safe and healthy, and help them navigate challenges related to returning to school
Revising our Risk and Response Tool, a powerful early warning system that helps our staff identify and immediately act on risk factors for girls who may be forced to cut their education short
Expanding our book supply chains, government partnerships and other local relationships to find ways to get books to children who cannot visit libraries
Launching our digital learning platform, Literacy Cloud, a rich online library of storybooks sorted by reading level and language, plus read-aloud videos and professional development resources for teachers, children’s book creators, members of the international publishing community, and governments – all for free
Preparing to support schools, educators and students to adjust timelines and close any learning gaps when schools reopen
Supporting our technological infrastructure that allows us to work remotely and continue to support our programs across the globe
Ensuring our financial integrity and transparency by continuing to deliver financial audits in times of office closures

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Support Our Work

If there’s one lesson from the pandemic, it’s the need to be nimble and adaptable. We are pivoting rapidly to meet the needs of the communities in which we work. This is only possible with your support.

Like many NGOs, we have seen our revenues decline steeply as a result of the cancellation of all annual fundraising events. We are moving quickly to fill the gap and depend on contributions from donors and partners so we can respond to urgent needs in real-time and immediately implement effective programs.