Today I am honored to welcome my really good friend Jovon Tucker. Jovon is the owner Book2Buzz Production, a company that produces book trailers. Check out some of her cool trailers here.
Jovon is here to chat with us about Room to Read an organization that is very important to her, that you should know about.
Hello, everyone, and thank you so much to Gillian for having me!
I am going to guess that most of the readers here love to read. Whether it’s books, magazines, comics, reference materials…anything at all…even the road signs we all use to get from place to place.
Why am I musing about such things? Well, how would you feel if you couldn’t read any of these things? Helpless? Ignorant? Like you’re not given a chance to fulfill your own legend in life, because you lack the skills that most of the world takes for granted. Now imagine you are young, and female. Two more things to clamp you down in the sad situation you see no way out of…
Unfortunately, 42% of girls in the developing world are not enrolled in school! As a woman whose favorite pastime in life is read anything I can get my hands on, not being able to would sadden me tremendously! This is why I love Room to Read and their mission!
Room to Read’s Mission
Room to Read was founded in 2000 by former Microsoft CEO John Wood. He wrote about it in his memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. He had gone to Nepal on vacation, to get away from the tech-world for a while and was shocked by the poverty and illiteracy of the area. He promised the Nepalese leader that he would one day return with books and teach the people to read. When he returned to the USA he resigned from Microsoft and founded Room to Read. In 2000, he returned to Nepal and returned to that same village with donkeys loaded with books. They built a school and a library, donated books, and taught the villagers how to read.
That was the first mission of Room to Read!
Room to Read is a global organization seeking to transform the lives of millions of children in Asia and Africa, through a focus on literacy and gender equality in education.
Founded on the belief that world change starts with educated children, Room to Read works in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments to develop literacy skills, a habit of reading among primary school children, and ensure girls have the skills and support needed to complete their secondary education.
Since 2000, Room to Read has impacted the lives of more than seven million children by providing increased access to high-quality, educational opportunities through its network of libraries and schools, local language children’s books and its girls’ education program. Room to Read is changing children’s lives in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia and aims to reach 10 million children by 2015.
What I personally think is super cool about Room to Read, is they hire local teachers and organizations. This ensures their active participation and sense of ownership. They take on this really nice holistic approach and while they teach these young ladies, they also give them the means to teach their future generations to read and spread their wings. This is wonderful and will certainly help empower future generations to rise above!
Why Gender Equality?
Educated women are healthier. An extra year of girls’ education can reduce infant mortality by 5–10% and can reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and other preventable disease.
Educated women earn more. Providing a girl with one extra year of education beyond the average boosts her future wages by 20%.
Significant inequalities still exist. Of the 793 million illiterate people in the world, two-thirds are female.
Room to Read is already changing the world.
More than 20,000 girls have been supported by Room to Read’s Girls’ Education program.
Nearly 8 million children have been provided better access to education through Room to Read since 2000.
More than 12 million children’s books have been distributed, including original Room to Read titles, donated English – and local language books.
Over 1,500 school and 15,000 libraries have been established by Room to Read.
(Source: Room to Read)
How you can help.
It takes $250 to put one student through school each year! This helps build schools, get them books, and everything else in between that will educate these children.
You can help and feel good doing it by making a donation to Room to Read through their website. You can either donate to their main page, or you can set up your own fundraising goal page HERE!
Or you can donate to Room to Read via the fundraising page on Book2Buzz Productions HERE! Book2Buzz Productions donates $5 to Room to Road with every package purchase.
Jovon returns in two weeks to talk about The Polaris Project.
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