giving back
Former Microsoft exec brings literacy to the developing world with Room to Read
Nov 25, 2011 | 8:00 am
Saroj Lama and Anita Bista are 5th grade students at the Shree Pratibha PrimarySchool in the Kavre region of Nepal.
John Wood, founder of Room to Read.
Saroj in his school Room to Read library.
John Wood, founder of Room to Read.
"We are too poor to afford education. But until we have education, we will always be poor."
So says the headmaster of a Nepalese school, reflecting the conundrum of the developing world. Poverty creates a vicious cycle—the only way out is through education. Yet in many places of the world, basic schooling is simply inaccessible.
John Wood and his organization, Room to Read, aim to change that. Wood used to be a top executive with a little company you might have heard of: Microsoft.
In 1998 he took off for Nepal and a much-needed backpacking getaway. While hiking in the Himalayas, Wood met a Nepalese “Education Resource Officer” who invited him to visit a school in a neighboring village. Little did he know that the detour would change his life forever.
At the school, Wood saw the harsh reality confronting not only this village, but millions of Nepalese children — a dilapidated schoolroom and a severe shortage of books. He was stunned to discover that the few books this school had had — a Danielle Steele romance, the Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia, and a few other backpacker castoffs — were so precious that they were kept under lock and key.
As Wood left the village, the headmaster made a simple request: "Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books." His request would not go unheard. Wood emailed friends asking for help collecting children's books, and within two months had collected over 3,000 books.
The following year he and his father, accompanied by a train of eight book-bearing donkeys, returned to the village in Nepal. Seeing the faces of the children with the books convinced Wood to leave the corporate world; in late 1999, he quit his executive position with Microsoft and started Room to Read with a Nepali co-founder, Dinesh Shrestha.
All these children need is a glimpse of something better. They latch on and don't let go. Their strong desire and their understanding of the possibilities is truly amazing to behold.
The mission was simple, but daunting: to bring books, literacy and education to hundreds of millions in the world for whom such things were virtually inaccessible. Since the founding of Room to Read in 2000, the organization has expanded beyond Nepal into India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Laos, Bangladesh and South Africa.
Wood and Shrestha also quickly realized that there was a special challenge for girls, and a need to focus on them. They started a Girls' Education program to target young girls and provide a long-term commitment to their education.
As Wood points out, the education and empowerment of females benefits males as well. Who is raising boys, he asks. If mothers are illiterate, their children are more likely to be as well. One fourth of girls in developing countries are not in school. Of the world’s 130 million youth who don’t go to school, 70 percent of them are girls.
"If we know that gender bias, safety concerns, early marriage, pregnancy and financial disadvantage are major roadblocks to tertiary education, then what are the success factors that can help girls in the developing world overcome them? In other words—let’s not focus on the barriers, let’s learn about the real-world solutions that actually work," Wood says.
Consider these facts:
- For every year a girl is educated beyond the average, her wages increase by 15 percent.
- When a girl in the developing world receives seven years or more of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
- When women earn income, they reinvest 90% of it back into their families, compared to only 30-40 percent for men.
Bill Clinton said of Wood: “Just think what would happen if a couple of hundred people followed his example."
Room to Read establishes libraries and stocks them not only with English-language books, but also local language titles which are virtually non-existent in many parts of the world. They also publish many of these books themselves — more than 550 titles in 25 languages to date — contracting with local writers and illustrators. The goal is to reach 10 million children by 2015.
"In my wildest dreams I could not have predicted that we would be at the point where we are today—a global organization made up of 400-plus passionate and driven employees working with tens of thousands of communities worldwide and impacting the lives of millions of children by giving them the chance to fulfill their right to an education," Wood told Rahim Kanani of Forbes Magazine.
He says that the biggest obstacle is convincing people to care about the issues, to convince them that education in the developing world is a critical and relevant global issue.
"After all, problems cross borders like never before and education is the best-proven long-term ticket out of poverty. All these children need is a glimpse of something better. They latch on and don't let go. Their strong desire and their understanding of the possibilities is truly amazing to behold."
Sante's Garden Room is decorated with two olive trees.
Photo by Chris Furia