Room to Read

Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality through education. We are achieving this goal by providing support during two of the most critical time periods in a child’s education: primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for life skills acquisition, particularly for girls. Our Literacy Program trains and coaches teachers, creates quality books and curricular materials and establishes libraries filled with diverse children’s books in local languages that can be enjoyed at school or home. Our Girls’ Education Program helps girls succeed in secondary school and negotiate key life decisions by supporting them as they increase their resilience, leadership, collaboration, critical thinking and decision-making skills. We do so by providing girls with positive role models, life skills classes, opportunities for mentorship and peer support, and family, school and community engagement. We also deliver remote solutions that leverage local broadcast media networks and internet-based technologies to facilitate learning beyond the classroom. Room to Read collaborates with local communities, partner organizations and governments to test and implement innovative models that can be integrated into the education system to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale. To date, Room to Read has benefited more than 45 million children and has worked in more than 213,000 communities and 24 countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Grenada, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, Vietnam and Zambia.