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Room to Read Skoll Awardee Profile Room to Read Skoll Awardee Profile Organization Overview Key Info Social Entrepreneur John Wood Year Awarded 2006 Issue Area Addressed Education Sub Issue Area Addressed Early Childhood to Primary Education, Women's and Girls' Education Countries Served Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam Website http://www.roomtoread.org Twitter handle roomtoread Facebook http://www.facebook.com/roomtoread Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/Roomtoread About the Organization Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read is creating a world free from childhood illiteracy and gender inequality in education. Across the globe, 750 million people—two-thirds of whom are women and girls—still lack basic reading and writing skills. Room to Read believes that education is the most effective tool for solving the world’s greatest challenges, such as poverty, disease, environmental degradation, exploitation and inequality. Through education, young people have the opportunity to gain the skills that enable them to become changemakers and create pathways to solve difficult problems in novel ways. Room to Read is transforming the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by developing their literacy skills and nurturing a love of reading through its Literacy Program, and by supporting girls to build skills to succeed in secondary school and negotiate key life decisions through its Girls’ Education Program. Because Room to Read programs can be replicated, localized and sustained by governments, the organization is able to create change at the systems level. To date, Room to Read has benefited more than 18 million children in 16 countries and 37,000 communities across Bangladesh, Cambodia, Grenada, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Zambia, with plans to reach 40 million children by 2025. Impact Room to Read has benefited more than 18 million children since 2000. To date, Room to Read has worked in 16 countries and 37,000 communities across Bangladesh, Cambodia, Grenada, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Zambia. Through its Literacy Program, Room to Read has partnered with more than 30,000 schools, published 1,500 original titles and distributed 26 million children’s books. Girls and boys in Room to Read supported classrooms demonstrate significantly higher reading fluency and comprehension scores than their peers in comparison schools. On average, Room to Read students read two to three times as fast as their peers and average 87 percent more correct answers on reading comprehension questions. Room to Read has supported more than 6,900 program graduates and 81,800 participants in its Girls’ Education Program. Room to Read alumnae have made remarkable progress in achieving life outcomes; recent results from alumnae surveys show that 79 percent of graduates enrolled in further education or found work within the first year of graduation. Additionally, the Life Skills Evaluation, an independent study conducted in India, found that girls in Room to Read program had a 25 percent lower dropout rate, showed higher levels of grade progression, and cultivated leadership- oriented life skills after only two years. Path to Scale Through its programs and technical assistance projects, Room to Read partners with organizations and governments to implement its model at scale across new geographies. Room to Read aims to not only increase the number of children reached but also drive transformational change by influencing national and subnational education systems. Social Entrepreneur In 1998, John Wood was trekking in Nepal on holiday from his life as a senior Microsoft executive. Visiting a school, he was saddened by its library, a crumbling building almost devoid of books. Thinking how his hometown library had affected his life, he returned a short time later on a yak with more than 3,000 books. In early 2000, he founded Room to Read. The library in Nepal — a supposedly one-off project — had become his life’s passion. RtR is builds educational institutions and systems in countries that lack resources, partnering with a community that provides land, materials, labor, and some of the funding to construct a school or to establish a library. RtR offers library training, English and native-language books, monitors performance, and offers scholarships to girls. RtR often acts as a model for the government education systems by testing new programs and methods. In Cambodia, it pioneered computer labs in secondary schools. Noting a lack of children’s books in Nepal, it partnered with NGOs and a publisher to produce books by local authors and illustrators. RtR has an innovative growth and sustainability model, with chapters in 40 cities around the world engaging more than 3,500 volunteers to raise awareness and money, and promoting RtR’s work by hosting events and offering “adopt a” library, school or girl scholarship options. At the time of the Award, Room to Read had constructed 700 schools, established 7,000 libraries, and funded 6,800 scholarships in eight countries. Founder John Wood is no longer the chair of the board, but is actively focused on advocacy and strategy. Equilibrium Overview Current Equilibrium The ability to read and write is essential to gain access to knowledge and opportunities in today’s world. Without strong literacy skills early on, children are more likely to struggle throughout their education, live in poverty and face challenges in realizing their full potential. Despite its importance, there are numerous barriers that prevent students from developing the literacy skills they need to thrive, including a lack of proper educational resources (i.e. updated resources available in local languages), minimal exposure to age-appropriate books, insufficiently trained teachers and overstretched infrastructure. Girls in particular are negatively impacted by gaps in educational infrastructure and face additional social and cultural barriers to success in school - cultural bias and safety concerns are just two of the variables that can stand in their way. They also face compounding challenges as they transition into secondary school, including increased school costs, the need to contribute to their family’s livelihood and pressures to marry and begin a family. Despite significant gains in primary school enrollment over the past decade, girls in developing countries are therefore still dropping out at an alarming rate. Out of the 124 million children and young adolescents who are out of school, 52% are girls [ii]. As a result of these challenges, roughly 757 million people today are illiterate [iii] — two-thirds of whom are women and girls [iv]. Additionally, 175 million young people in low and lower- middle-income countries (one out of every four children) are unable to read a single sentence [v]. [i] UNESCO Institute for Statistics [ii] UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report [iii] 2014 Room to Read: Global Monitoring Report [iv] UNESCO Statistics on Literacy [v] UNESCO Statistics on Literacy New Equilibrium In the new equilibrium, every child in the developing world attends a school that has a library with books in their local language, as well as teachers and librarians who are trained in the best practices of reading and writing instruction. Schools are child-friendly learning spaces that are equipped with culturally relevant reading materials and the teacher training necessary to encourage children to become lifelong, independent readers. Families, communities and governments are all committed to the success of schools and the education system as a whole. National governments ensure high-quality curricula, resources and teacher education throughout their respective countries. Improved reading skills and a strong habit of reading provides the foundation for a successful education for all students. Additionally, girls in these countries advanced toward secondary school graduation and have the skills to negotiate key life decisions. Whether these young women go on to start families, begin a career, attend college, or all three, they are prepared and empowered to make educated choices about their futures, ultimately benefiting their families and their communities. Parents and community members are committed to gender equality in education and governments encourage girls’ participation in school through educational policy. Innovation Room to Read aims to improve educational opportunities for children in underserved communities through a focus on literacy development and gender equality in education. In the long-term, Room to Read hopes that this educational investment increases students' future prospects and well-being in their adult life. Room to Read implements two programs, both exclusively within public schools: The Literacy Program works to improve student literacy in low- income countries through 1) quality reading materials, 2) ongoing teacher training and support, 3) safe and child-friendly learning environments (i.e. libraries, schools and classrooms) and 4) strong community and government relationships. Since literacy is the foundation for all future learning, the Literacy Program helps primary school students in acquiring literacy skills and a habit of reading, setting them up for success in the rest of their academic journey. While Room to Read initially provided these interventions
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