Lucina Di Meco, Director, Girls’ Education Program, Room to Read My father was one of four kids raised in a home with no running water and no electricity. His small village in Abruzzo, Italy did not have a secondary school and so, to continue his education beyond 8th grade, he…

By Heather Simpson, Chief Program Officer, Room to Read Earlier this week, I watched my son walk through the doors of his elementary school and joyfully head off to his first day of second grade. As I said goodbye and wished him a great day at school, I noticed myself…

For the average student most struggles occur in the classroom, whether it’s curriculum comprehension or connecting with peers. Yet, for Ara, a young Sri Lankan girl, day to day life came with its own set of challenges. Like thousands of other Muslim Sri Lankans from the Mannar district, Ara’s family…

By Dr. Geetha Murali, Chief Development Officer, Room to Read This week marks the start of the holiday season in many countries around the world, a time of year when we are inundated with advertisements for toys and games that will be gifts for lucky children. Regardless of age, we…

Room to Read is a global community. We are investors, volunteers, advocates and staff committed to the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children.® Our website, www.roomtoread.org, serves as a central hub where we are able to connect and share stories from the communities we serve and highlight and…

As sheets of rain pounded the Phoum Khmer Primary School yard into puddles, sixth grader Kim Yi read with her friends in the library. Ignoring the torrent outside, she paged through the colorful illustrations in Can it Rain Cats and Dogs?, …

This is Part I in a four-part series that will follow over the next several months how Room to Read develops quality children’s books in low-income countries — from initial story concept to the moment the book lands in a child’s hands. …

“When I was 16, I experienced the hardest social challenge any girl would want to avoid — teen pregnancy.” If you stroll far enough into the coastal town of Bagamoyo in Tanzania, away from the cultural, tourist and conference hub it has become, you may catch a glimpse of an…

When Nirupa’s mother was young she never had a chance to get an education. In Nepal, girls are seen as financial burdens and tasked with household chores or supplementing the family’s income, which greatly limits their access to quality education. When she became a single parent, Nirupa’s mother was…