KGO-TV (Bay Area, California, USA)
Dec. 22- KGO - It's a lofty goal giving every child in the developing world all the materials needed to get a proper education. One Bay Area group is putting this dream forward in seven developing countries. The visionaries at "Room to Read" who are bringing knowledge to thousands of children around the world.
In this remote village in Cambodia, most children end up working in rice fields, earning less than a dollar a day. A video provided by the Bay Area organization "Room to Read" shows how education here has been a far reaching commodity. That is until one man's dream changed the way children learn.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "I wondered how can we live in a world with this much abundance and be lacking something as simple as a school library."
John Wood had a vision. In 1998, while hiking in the mountains of Nepal, he stumbled upon a school.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "And when the headmaster invited me to the school's library I was amazed because it was a library in name only. It was this empty room where a library could have existed. So there were 450 kids there who wanted to read but didn't have any books and I thought this can't be a hard problem to solve. I should come back and help them set up their first library."
A year later he loaded hundreds of books on the back of a yak. The smiles and faces of the children sealed the deal for John Wood.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "The kids were so excited and I thought wow this would be a great way to spend the rest of my life. I loved Microsoft, I enjoyed working there, but I felt I was making rich people, richer."
Others, with a similar vision, eventually followed:
Jason Morris, "Room to Read": "The trade off is that we can change the world."
"Room to Read" began doing more than just donating books. This San Francisco based non-profit started setting up libraries and building schools in Nepal.
After being successful in Nepal, the concept quickly expanded to other countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Laos and this year South Africa. Today "Room to Read" also publishes children's books, provides computer labs and funds scholarships for girls.
Emily Leys, "Room to Read": "Certainly gender is one that makes being born in those situations as a girl even more limiting and your opportunities even less."
Erin Ganju, "Room to Read": "You know that the world will be different if they can get an education."
Last year when they opened a new school in Cambodia, each student received a bicycle so they wouldn't have to walk miles to get to school. "Room to Read" works with local people who know best about their own education system.
The money comes from donations, fund raisers and major corporations. But it's wood's sales pitch that convinces them all the time.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "I would show pictures of a school and say $10,000 dollars and we could build an entire school and people's jaws would drop. How can you build an entire school for $10,000 dollars? Well, the reason is because the local people are donating land, the local people are putting labor into the project so it keeps the cost low."
And how's this for results: To date "Room to Read" has built 221 schools, 60 more are under construction and the organization has set up more than 3,000 bilingual libraries across the developing world.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "My hope would be that there would be tens of millions of people who are educated and they say it all started with this one simple concept of education for kids everywhere regardless of their economic circumstances."
In this remote village in Cambodia, most children end up working in rice fields, earning less than a dollar a day. A video provided by the Bay Area organization "Room to Read" shows how education here has been a far reaching commodity. That is until one man's dream changed the way children learn.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "I wondered how can we live in a world with this much abundance and be lacking something as simple as a school library."
John Wood had a vision. In 1998, while hiking in the mountains of Nepal, he stumbled upon a school.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "And when the headmaster invited me to the school's library I was amazed because it was a library in name only. It was this empty room where a library could have existed. So there were 450 kids there who wanted to read but didn't have any books and I thought this can't be a hard problem to solve. I should come back and help them set up their first library."
A year later he loaded hundreds of books on the back of a yak. The smiles and faces of the children sealed the deal for John Wood.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "The kids were so excited and I thought wow this would be a great way to spend the rest of my life. I loved Microsoft, I enjoyed working there, but I felt I was making rich people, richer."
Others, with a similar vision, eventually followed:
Jason Morris, "Room to Read": "The trade off is that we can change the world."
"Room to Read" began doing more than just donating books. This San Francisco based non-profit started setting up libraries and building schools in Nepal.
After being successful in Nepal, the concept quickly expanded to other countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Laos and this year South Africa. Today "Room to Read" also publishes children's books, provides computer labs and funds scholarships for girls.
Emily Leys, "Room to Read": "Certainly gender is one that makes being born in those situations as a girl even more limiting and your opportunities even less."
Erin Ganju, "Room to Read": "You know that the world will be different if they can get an education."
Last year when they opened a new school in Cambodia, each student received a bicycle so they wouldn't have to walk miles to get to school. "Room to Read" works with local people who know best about their own education system.
The money comes from donations, fund raisers and major corporations. But it's wood's sales pitch that convinces them all the time.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "I would show pictures of a school and say $10,000 dollars and we could build an entire school and people's jaws would drop. How can you build an entire school for $10,000 dollars? Well, the reason is because the local people are donating land, the local people are putting labor into the project so it keeps the cost low."
And how's this for results: To date "Room to Read" has built 221 schools, 60 more are under construction and the organization has set up more than 3,000 bilingual libraries across the developing world.
John Wood, Founder & CEO, Room to Read: "My hope would be that there would be tens of millions of people who are educated and they say it all started with this one simple concept of education for kids everywhere regardless of their economic circumstances."
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