Room to read for children

Ruwini Jayawardana

Woods visits Sri Lanka

Founder of Room to Read, John Wood will be visiting Sri Lanka for the second occasion in July. He will be meeting some of the Ministers including the Minister of Education Susil Premajayanth and other top officials of the country to discuss how Room to Read could further contribute to the re-building process of North and East. The event will take place July 24 while their global conference, held for the first time in Sri Lanka, will unfold from July 25 to 31. All the delegates from the nine countries where the organization is established and USA will be present at the event.

A child’s key to success starts with the book. Reading sets the lifelong foundation that provides a future for kids. The most effective way that each and every child learns the lessons of life is through reading a good book.

While still occupied as the director of business development for China in Microsoft, John Wood left the industry which was booming with business for a worthy cause. The inspiration for the project came about from a visit to Nepal where he discovered a school with a library lacking books suitable for school children.

This incident had a huge impact of Wood for it inspired him to establish ‘Room to Read’, an organized movement for children’s education.

Being a bookworm, Wood knew the value of education through reading. He circulated e-mails among friends requesting them to donate a book on behalf of the children in Nepal. Back home he found that his plan had been met with such enthusiasm and success that around 3,000 books were stacked in his garage. He packed them up and took them to Nepal and distributed among the children of the school. The joy which lit up the faces of the children touched his heart and he was stimulated to take his act of good will beyond the boundaries of Nepal.

Wood left Microsoft and dedicated himself to establishing a world of books for children. The organization expanded rapidly and branches grew in nine countries including countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Bangladesh, Laos, Zambia, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

“Our main focus is education as we believe in the ideology that education is the most powerful tool to build the cycle of poverty. Our slogan is ‘World change starts with educated children’,” explained the Country Director of Room to Read, Sri Lanka, Glenfrey de Mel. The branch in Sri Lanka was incepted in 2005 shortly after the Tsunami tragedy struck the island.

According to de Mel, the organization holds a number of programs to help kids achieve their educational goals. One of their main events deals with what is titled as ‘Reading Room’.

Room to Read had established 7,000 libraries globally. They have constructed 665 in Sri Lanka in the past three years. “Our library is different from the traditional library. It is a place where teachers work with the students to promote the reading habit and address the issue of literacy.

Our library is always monitored by social mobilizers and they support teachers to conduct activities with children.

They monitor if the books are lent and read by children. We give three years support to a library by giving books and training the librarian. We donate Sinhala as well as English books for the Sinhala schools and Tamil and English books for Tamil schools. Books are selected by the committee of the school,” he said adding that they have presented five million books up-to-date.

He also said that they have noted that since the English books alone do not serve their purpose, Room to Read, had begun a local language publishing program.

“We publish children’s story books in the country’s mother tongue. In Sri Lanka we publish story books in Sinhala and Tamil. We also train local authors to write books for children. We have held children’s creative writing competitions and the winners have seen their work in print,” he stressed adding that Indian author Subir Shukla had come down to conduct a number of workshops on creative writing for the participants.

Ha also added that inculcating the reading habit should be practiced at an early age.

They also conduct a ‘School Room’ program where they construct pre-schools or primary schools. They have established 700 schools globally and in 182 pre-schools along with 20 primary schools in Sri Lanka.

“The building, furniture and equipment for the school are donated by the organization and the teachers also get a three year training session.

We also hold a girls’ education program where girls are empowered to achieve their educational targets and train them on life skills.

It is a six-year scholarship program starting off from students in year six. We have thousand two hundred scholars under the program from a number of remote areas in the country,” he noted.

A literacy program is also conducted in the Vilgamuwa zone, one of the areas with minimal facilities in the country. Around 613 students have been chosen for the program along with teachers who undergo a training program for the classes.

Room to Read, Sri Lanka, is conducting their projects with the library development unit of the Ministry of Education and the child secretariat of the Ministry of Child Development.