Literacy has the power to bring the world together.

Support a Year of Reading

Room to Read’s Literacy Program transforms primary schools into child-friendly learning environments that enable children to become life-long, independent readers.

Support a Year of Reading: $50

As citizens of a global, interconnected community, we use literacy every day. We use the written word to celebrate our greatest wins and explore the deepest of sorrows. We use literacy to find our tribe and debate different points of view. Even in times of great divisiveness, we fight with our words more often than with our fists. Literacy is the framework through which we communicate, connect and expand our shared existence.

Yet nearly a billion people are unable to join the conversation because they cannot read or write. Seven hundred and fifty million adults lack basic reading and writing skills. One hundred and twenty-four million children and adolescents are not in school and one in four children in historically low-income countries cannot read.

Inside Room to Read's Literacy Program

15 Books to raise a Global Citizen

In the words of our Literacy Program Director, Christabel Pinto,

"Books have the power to expand the boundaries of our world. Good stories allow us to take a few steps in somebody else’s shoes and, in doing so, to recognize our shared humanity and experience a world beyond our own. But children’s books are so much more than a learning tool — they delight, teach, engage, and challenge us.

When living in difficult circumstances, books can provide a respite from struggle and a window into possibilities beyond the here and now. In a world where differences are exploited to pit people against each other, books can be a means to understanding both ourselves and others better."

Seven Books that Challenge the Way that You Look at the World »

Room to Read's Global Book Collection, Volume I

When we give children stories that highlight different cultures and experiences, we widen their perspectives from an early age. That's why we're sharing the first volume of Room to Read's free digital Global Book Collection for all of the little global citizens in your life.

Download the Collection

Room to Read is breaking the cycle of childhood illiteracy and poverty in a single generation.

Room to Read's innovative Literacy Program ensures primary schools have libraries filled with books in the children’s local languages, as well as teachers and librarians who are trained on how to engage a classroom of eager, young learners. By the end of Grade 2, children in Room to Read's Literacy Program read 2 to 3 times as fast and read with 87 percent greater comprehension than their peers in non-Room to Read program schools.

The End of Impossible

With proven tools for teaching reading fluency and comprehension, we know how to solve the illiteracy crisis. We just need the capital to do it. Let’s reverse the notion that the end to these challenges is impossible.

Support a Year of Reading Today

Books Best Suited for Emerging Readers

Beginning readers need books and instructional materials designed for their skill levels. Challenging or complex texts can intimidate students and discourage their practice. Unfortunately, books for early readers are often limited or nonexistent in the countries where we work.

To remedy this, we create local language materials that readers at various levels can enjoy. These books cover topics that capture children’s imaginations and make reading fun. Our goal is inspire children to read, expand their minds, and develop a lifelong love for reading and learning.

Drawing on Success to Author Change

Sustaining and Scaling Literacy Programs

Create World Change

With your support we can scale faster and transform communities across the globe. Together, we have the potential to reach 40 million children by 2025.

Transformational Giving

We design our literacy programs to create long-term, systemic change in the places where we work. That means working closely with communities to ensure activities in schools are sustained for many years after Room to Read intervention. We work with communities early in project planning and share costs to establish local ownership, as well as equipping them with the knowledge and skills to continue activities in schools and to source books themselves.

We also advocate for, and work in partnership with, governments to scale effective literacy initiatives in order to respond to a country’s need at the national level. To enable this, we use replicable interventions based on global research and best-practices for helping students in text-poor communities become fluent readers. The data from our project schools demonstrates to governments the kind of impact that is possible with well-designed materials and training. This helps us to work with Ministries of Education to promote widespread policy and curriculum changes that impact children beyond our program schools. These partnerships ensure that we complement national efforts, and sustain and scale programs nationally.