In late 1990s the author John Wood ,then a Marketing Director in Microsoft, was on a three weeks trekking vacation in Nepal.
He came across a school in a remote village. The school had 450 students . But all it had in the name of a library was a miserable collection of 20 odd books which included -a Danielle Steel romance, an Umberto Ecco novel in Italian, a Lonely Planet guide to Mongolia, a copy of "Finnegans Wake" ! Certainly not what you would expect to see in a school library. It was obvious that the collection had been put together using books discarded by the previous trekkers. These books were both physically (the books were kept in a locked cupboard !) and intellectually out of school children's reach.
The headmaster of the school had a strong desire to inculcate the habit of reading among the students but was seriously hampered by lack of resources to build a good school library. He told the author "Perhaps, sir, you will someday comeback with books."
This sentence changed John Wood's life forever. It deeply moved him. He contacted nearly 100 friends and made a strong appeal to them to donate books for the school. This campaign was a huge success and thus the foundations of a massive social entrepreneurship undertaking now known as "Room to Read" were laid.
Room to Read's mission is to provide opportunity for under-privileged children to gain the gift of education. Its strategy includes:
- Partnering with villages to build schools
- Establishing libraries and filling them with donated English books and local-language books published by it.
- Providing computer and language labs to improve employment skills, and
- Providing scholarships for under-privileged young girls who cannot afford fees that are required of all students, even those attending public schools.
To ensure the likelihood for success and long -term sustainability, Room to Read enlists community involvement and co-investment. Instead of just doling out funds in a condescending manner , Room to Read believes in making the beneficiary earn it by working in partnership with Room to Read. Thus it preserves the dignity of the beneficiary and also teaches them to take care of themselves in future.
Till date (May 2012) Room to Read has helped build over 1500 schools and 13,000 libraries and benefited about 6 million children of Third World countries like Nepal, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Tanzania.
This book tells how it all happened. It has three parts.
Part 1 - Discovering Nepal; Leaving Microsoft: In this part Wood talks about how he discovered a pathetic school library during his vacation and helped in enriching it with children's books with the help of his father and friends. He also tells how after debating a lot he walked away from Microsoft and also suffered a break-off from his girl friend who did not share his passion for the ambitious child education mission he wanted to undertake.
Part II - Starting Over: This part deals with the early days of Room to Read after Wood left Microsoft and how he built the organization making full use of lessons and skills he learned in Microsoft (especially from Steve Ballmer).
Part III - Hitting Our Stride: How 'Room to Read' expanded its operations through numerous fund raising campaigns is the main theme of this part.
All the chapters in this book narrate several touching stories of how the author received help from various sources and how hard some under-privileged people work for a better education. Some of the chapters in this book have a side-box to highlight a success story or a lesson learned or some tips on entrepreneurship.
The book has also several heartwarming photographs of smiling children whose life have been positively impacted by Room to Read programs.
This book is an inspiring and fascinating saga of Room to Read with doses of humor sprinkled in it. It is also a sort of post-Microsoft autobiography of the author. The author comes out as an ambitious, passionate and sincere person dedicated to the cause. It is a very noble cause indeed and everybody who is involved in this organization has to be admired at.
A must read for entrepreneurs, educationists , social workers and anyone who cares for children !
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Key takeaways from this book:
- "You are old enough to know that the only person you have to satisfy in life is yourself. Do what you think is the right thing to do and get used to answering only to yourself" - Advice given by author's father when the author was a school kid.
- "Look , there are two ways to remove a Band-Aid: slowly and painfully, or quickly and painfully. Your choice." - A friend's advice to the author when he was debating whether to leave Microsoft.
- Most people in the nonprofit world hate to ask others for money. They need to get past this barrier, quickly or their organization will suffer.
- 5 Core principles which Wood reviews before meeting with prospective donors:
- Play up the fact that the donors, who would have been helped in their own life by education, now have the opportunity to give that same gift back to hundreds of children in the developing world.
- Show the donors a direct connection between what they give and what gets done as a result.
- Keep the overhead for running Room to Read low, so donors will know that 90 percent on the dollars goes to the projects, not to administrative and fund-raising expenses.
- Passion sells. There is not enough of it in the world, so when people meet a passionate individual, that person really stands out.
- People are looking for more meaning in their lives. Funding education provides a great feeling that you have helped to change the world for better.
