Presentation given october 2011 Burlington VT

1. Vermont Women’s Giving Circle
September 2011
Girls’ Education

2. The Need to Support Girls’ Education
Room to Read
• 42% of girls in developing countries are not
enrolled in school
• Women do 67% of the world’s work.
• Women produce 50% of the world’s food.
• Women earn 10% of the world’s income.
• Women own 1% of the world’s property.
• And of the 796 million illiterate people in the
world today, over 2/3 of them are women.

3. UNICEF Data
• Education is vital to ensuring a better quality of life for all children and a
better world for all people. But if girls are left behind, those goals can
never be achieved. In country after country, educating girls yields
spectacular social benefits for the current generation and those to come.
• An educated girl tends to marry later and have healthier children.
• The children she does have will be more likely to survive; they will be
better nourished and better educated.
• She will be more productive at home and better paid in the workplace.
• She will be better able to protect herself against HIV/AIDS and to assume a
more active role in social, economic and political decision-making
throughout her life.

4. Barriers and Challenges:
Why Fewer Girls? The Girl Effect
• Girls suffer more from the effects of poverty
• Economic and safety concerns
• Many families that cannot afford to educate all
their children
• Girls face inequities in the classroom and often
lack female teachers as role models.

5. Organizations Involved
• United Nations Girl’s Initiative
• UNICEF
• Academy for Educational Development (AED)
• Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED)
• Girls Education International
• Room to Read
• Nanhi Kali
• The Kanga Project

6. Room to Read
• 1 DREAM – John Wood, Erin Ganju 1998
• 10+ Years of Operation
• Mission
• Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in developing countries by
focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local
communities, partner organizations and governments, we develop literacy skills and a habit
of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school
with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond.
• Vision
Room to Read believes that World Change Starts with Educated Children. We envision a
world in which all children can pursue a quality education that enables them to reach their full
potential and contribute to their community and the world.

7. Room to Read
• Focus Programs
Reading Room - Establish Libraries and stock them with local-language children’s books, original
Room to Read titles, donated English-language books, games and furniture to create a child-friendly
learning environment.
School Room – Partner with local communities to build schools so children can learn in a safe,
child-friendly environment
Local Language Publishing – Source new content from local writers and illustrators and publish
high-quality children’s books in the local language to distribute throughout our networks.
Girls’ Education – Provide long-term, holistic support enabling girls to pursue and complete their
secondary education.
Schools 1,442
Libraries 11,246
Books Published 553
Books Distributed 9.4 million
Girls' Education Participants 10,590
Children Benefited 5.1 million
Room to Read proudly graduated 149 girls from the program in 2010:
88 in Cambodia, 19 in India, 6 in Nepal and 36 in Vietnam.

8. Financials
4 Stars from Charity Navigator
• Total Revenue $39M Donations $34M In-Kind $5M
• 2010 By Type of Donor 2010 Sources of Revenue by Region
• Individual 66% Americas 53%
• Corporation 21% Asia/Pacific 28%
• Foundation 11% Europe 18%
• School and Other 2% Middle East/Africa 1%
• 2010 Program Functional Expense Total Expense Breakdown
• Reading Room 56% Program Expenses 83%
• School Room 18% Fundraising/Mgmt 17%
• Girls’ Education 13%
• Literacy Pilots 7%
• Local Language vv
• Publishing 6%

9. A Philosophical Discussion
• It is Room to Read's philosophy not to establish a direct one to one
relationship between our donors and individual students. We feel
that forcing our students to maintain a relationship with a person
they have never met is unfair, particularly since our students are
young and not yet literate in English.
• Of equal importance is that our goal is to support our partner
countries in addressing their own challenges. Requiring children to
communicate with donors overseas may have the effect of their
concluding that solutions lie beyond their own community.
• To provide information on our Girls' Education Program, we publish
an annual Girls' Education Yearbook that details the components of
the program and highlights some of our key partnerships as well as
some of the participating girls.

10. What I Like
• 10 Countries – Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Sri
Lanka, Laos, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania (2012)
• The approach is long-term, holistic, and relevant
- material support
- supplementary activities
(tutoring, life skills training, and mentoring)
- life skills training
• Community Involvement
– We also work with parents, teachers, school administrators and
community members to ensure each girl has a strong support
system in place that enables her to thrive

11. What I Like
• The NO STRESS POLICY
• Local Based Female mentoring
• In 2010, 97 percent of our scholars advanced to the next grade
• Good system of monitoring – always improving
• All staff within a country are local
• Chapters make it more personal and local. All chapter workers
are volunteers. Responsible for 35% of fundraising dollars
• 66% of Fundraising dollars from individuals
• Opportunities for students to get active

12. What our $$ will buy
• $50 provides puzzles, games and educational toys for one library
• $100 purchases desks and chairs in a newly constructed classroom
• $250 allows one very deserving girl to attend school for a year
• $500 enables a teacher to receive three years of library management training
• $1,000 funds the publication and distribution of 1,000 children’s books
• $2,500 funds 10 years of education for girls that otherwise would not have the
opportunity to attend school.
• $5,000 establishes a library filled with age-appropriate children’s books and staffed
by a trained librarian.

13. We Can Choose
• Country Total Participants in 2010 Total Participants in 2011
(Projected)
• Bangladesh 232 532
• Cambodia 1,628 1,862
• India 2,882 3,537
• Laos 1,065 1,256
• Nepal 1,670 2,043
• Sri Lanka 1,598 2,200
• Vietnam 1,323 1,574
• Zambia 180 557

14. Barb Heffner
• Barb volunteer since 2007. In 2008 became a chapter leader.
Inspired by John’s Book: Leaving Microsoft to Change the World
• Chapter Set up for fundraising works well. Small events : students
beer for books to gala events – trying to host Sheryl WuDunn the
author of Half the Sky
• How inspiring John and Erin are
• Surprised at how the organization always adjusts and changes
– Backpack Logo
– Class of Room to Read – 2 Avenues Mentoring and Life skills