Tackling illteracy starts from you

1. Tackling illiteracy
Project Title: Helping Children in
Sarawak to learn English
Source 1.1: John Wood at
Room to Read in Nepal
Source 1.2: John Wood’s
Book about his Room to
Read project
Source 1.3: Founder of First Book,
Kyle Zimmer

2. Introduction John Wood’s Room to Read
• They build Schools(School Rooms) and establish
Libraries(Reading Room) while working together with
rural communities [1999]
• They began the Girls’ Education programme, where
young girls are provided with education
Opportunities[2000]
• Countries where Room to Read is established
▫ Nepal
▫ Vietnam
▫ Cambodia
▫ Sri Lanka
▫ Laos
▫ Zambia

3. More information about First Book
• They want to end illiteracy and to end it, they provide
poor children in North America the access to books
which is a resource essential to overcoming illiteracy.
• They hope to educate more audiences about illiteracy,
empower more educators and administrators because
more children need books and quality educational
opportunities to end illiteracy
• People can donate money to purchase new books for
the children, Volunteering to fund books and provide
grants for new books to eligible Recipient Groups and
even partner with First Book to End illiteracy.

4. History and Impact of John Wood’s Room to
Read project
• Idea to start Room to Read
▫ Travelled to Nepal to relief stress
▫ Short detour to a school in a neighbouring village
▫ At The School
 There are Millions of Nepalese children-a dilapidated schoolroom and a severe
shortage of books
▫ Headmaster of school made a simple request: “Perhaps, Sir, you will someday
come back with books.”
▫ He started collecting children books from his friends and within 2 months,
collected more than 3000 books
▫ Returned to the village with 8 book-bearing donkeys
 Children’s faces lit up
 Convinced John to start Room to Read and quit his executive position with
Microsoft
• Impact of Room to Read Project
▫ Partnered with local communities in 6 countries built 765 schools and 92 libraries
as of July 2009
▫ Thousands of young students are learning in Safe, child-friendly environments,
encouraging their mental and physical development
▫ Local communities are investing in their future by improving educational
opportunities and access for the children.

5. History and Impact of Kyle Zimmer’s First
Book Organisation
• History of First Book
▫ Volunteered at a Soup Kitchen in Washington, DC and realise
the kids had no books in their lives.
▫ Set out to build a market-driven solution ensuring all
children have access to books and resources.
• Impact of First Book
▫ Provided more than 135 million books for children to read
▫ Help 45% of children (more than 32 million) in USA live in
low income households .
 They have no age-appropriate books at home
 Classrooms and programmes they attend are woefully under-
resourced
 Two thirds of Schools and programmes cannot afford books at
retail prices

6. Credits:
Source 1.1: http://blog.roomtoread.org/room-to-read/john-wood/
Source 1.2: http://www.roomtoread.org/page.aspx?pid=261
Source 1.3: http://www.cbcbooks.org/kyle-zimmer-co-founder-and-ceo-of-first-book-to-be-honored-by-
the-national-book-foundation-as-the-2014-literarian-medalist/#.VjLQbPkrKUk
Slide 2 & 4 Information: http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/author.html
Slide 3 & 5 Information:
1) http://www.firstbook.org/first-book-story/overcoming-illiteracy
2) http://www.firstbook.org/first-book-story/our-impact
Room to Read Website: http://www.roomtoread.org/
First Book Website: http://www.firstbook.org/
Done by: Patrick Chew
Sim Yu Han
Elijah Chua
Matthew Hsu