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February 2010
Last night Generous Party was delighted to be invited to hear the Founder and Executive Chairman of Room to Read, John Wood, 45, speak about the inspiration behind establishing Room to Read at the official launch of the Melbourne Chapter of Room to Read at Melbourne Business School.
the inspiration behind Room to Read
Room to Read partners with local communities in the developing world to provide access to educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating children's books in local languages, constructing schools and libraries, and providing education to girls.
John Wood at Room to Read
John Wood with a yak laden with of children's books about to be
delivered to a school. Image courtesy Room to Read.
During the talk John shared how he had been inspired to establish Room to Read and to leave the life of a senior
Moved by a simple comment a Nepalese headmaster said to him: "We are too poor to afford education. But until we have education we will always be poor, John left
Ten years on Room to Read has achieved the following impact:
Schools 1,129
Libraries 9,196
Books Published 433
Books Distributed 7.4 million
Girls' Scholarships 8,725
Children Benefited 4.1 million
Room to Read says that it believes in creating change through a 'global network' and that scalable, measured, sustainable results need to be achieved with low-overheads.
John communicated how Room to Read believes in the power of local partnerships and creating a sense of ownership in all projects and therefore projects are only established in regions where local communities and governments have agreed to co-invest. Co-investing can be as simple as local members of the community agreeing to donate the labor to build the school or library and the local government agreeing to pay the wages of the teachers.
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