How people helped prevent poverty

1. Social Entrepreneurs
By: Jodan Seow
Louie Chan
Sammuel Chan
George Teo

2. John Wood
Since 2000 Room to Read has
established more than 12,000 libraries
stocked with English and local-
language books in nine countries,
including Nepal, Vietnam and India.
The organization has a particular focus
on helping girls finish basic education,
providing them with financial
assistance and tutors.

3. How John Wood started
Wood took a vacation from his work at Microsoft in 1998 to trek through the Himalayas. While
trekking, he met a “resource director” for the schools in the Annapurna Circuit of Nepal, with whom
he visited a primary school that contained 450 children and only a handful of books—none age-
appropriate. Upon seeing Wood's reaction to the lack of books, the school’s headmaster suggested,
"Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books," which inspired Wood to solicit book
donations from family and friends via email sent from an Internet cafe in Kathmandu.
A year later, Wood returned to the school with 3,000 books—all donated in response to his email
appeal to friends and family. Soon thereafter, he left his job at Microsoft entirely to devote himself
full-time to Books for Nepal, a side project that would eventually form the foundation for Room to
Read.
Leaving Microsoft was published by Harper Collins in August 2006. It was featured on The Oprah
Winfrey Show in 2007, with "Oprah's Book Drive" for Room to Read raising over $3 million.
Leaving Microsoft has been published in 21 languages. It was named one of the Top Ten non-fiction
books of 2006 by Hudson's Booksellers and a Top Ten business narrative by Amazon.com. The
sequel was published by Penguin in February, 2013.

4. Greg Mortenson
Greg Mortenson (born December 27, 1957) is an American
humanitarian, professional speaker, writer, and former
mountaineer. He is a co-founder and former executive
director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute, from which
he was forced to resign as executive director following an
investigation by the Montana attorney general,and the
founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace.
Mortenson is the co-author of The New York Times
Bestseller, Three Cups of Tea, which stayed on the New York
Times bestseller list for 220 weeks. Three Cups of Tea has
been published in over 47 languages. Mortenson is also the
author of Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books,
Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mortenson has been criticized by writers such as Peter
Hessler and Jon Krakauer for financial mismanagement of
his charity, for "dodging accountability" and for writing a
book Krakauer described as "riddled with lies".

5. Greg Mortenson’s Origin
Mortenson describes the origins of his humanitarian work in his best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea.
He states he traveled to northern Pakistan in 1993 to climb the world’s second-highest mountain, K2,
as a memorial to his sister, Christa. After more than 70 days on the mountain located in the
Karakoram range, Mortenson failed to reach the summit. Earlier, Mortenson and fellow climber,
Scott Darsney, were also involved in a 75-hour life-saving rescue of another climber, Etienne Fine,
which put them in a weakened state. After the rescue, he descended the mountain and set out with
local Balti porter Mouzafer Ali to the nearest city.
According to the account in Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson stated he took a wrong turn on the trail
and ended up in the small village of Korphe. Physically exhausted, ill, and alone at the time of his
arrival there, Mortenson was cared for by some of Korphe's residents while he recovered. As a gesture
of gratitude to the community for their assistance to him, Mortenson said he would build a school for
the village after he noticed local students attending school in an outdoor location and writing out
their lessons in the dirt. Mortenson has since stated in a 2011 interview that the timing in the Korphe
account in Three Cups of Tea is inaccurate and that the events actually took place over a longer
period of time and during separate trips.

6. Credits
Thank you for your attention!
http://www.forbes.com/impact-30/john-wood.html