Review of the Year 2020

Review of the Year 2020 20 years in Literacy and Girls' Education

Our Achievements

263,000+ 24 radio programs in 7 districts.

410 Radio Episodes 30+

households reached through

hours of public service announcement

150

Digital books published in Nepali language on Room to Read's online library (literacycloud.org)

100 Audiobooks distributed through radio.

4,008 girls supported

through phone mentoring.

226, 845

minutes of support sessions.

15,123

number of total mentoring sessions to the girls

7595

parents supported with essential literacy tips.

9,416

parents reach through text messaging.

10,231

number of text messages sent

The journey of Room to Read began in 2000 with a dream to support children reach their full potential through education. The first Room to Read's initiative started from Bahundhada of Lamjung district with the "Books for Nepal" program delivering 2,509 books to two Nepalese schools. Now, Room to Read is an international organization working in 17 countries and have benefitted over 18.8 million children through its Literacy and Girls' Education Program 20 years of working with communities, government, and local partner organizations to create a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality, and our belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children© has only gotten stronger.

Our work in 2020 In 2020, continuing education was a challenge however, we quickly pivoted our program and ensured that all children, especially from vulnerable communities continue to receive essential educational and social support.

Room to Read’s distance learning programs serves as an essential lifeline to students missing out on crucial learning.

Our learning program provided human connectivity via the channels that were most accessible to low-income community children, including telephone, radio, and as well as text messaging, while also distributing of hard copies of reading material.

Literacy Program

Raising early readers into lifelong learners

Radio Program

Digital Library and Read Alouds

Room to Read partnered with local government and community radio, and broadcasted learning material within a month after the official announcement of lockdown due to COVID-19. We also generated over 300 literacy development radio episodes and broadcasted them through 25 radio stations in Nuwakot, Palpa, Syangja, Salyan, and Tanahun to help children strengthen their literacy skills. Benefitted through our interventions are 301,950 children, parents, teachers, and community members.

Connecting with parents

Since phones are widely used as an accessible way of communication, we turned to text and phone calls supporting parents to engage in literacy activities with their children. We provided actionable tips and home-schooling techniques helping parents to ensure that children continue learning.

Room to Read launched a free digital library ( literacycloud.org ), and published 150 children’s books in the Nepali language along with more than 450books from around the world. The storybooks are categories by language, genre, and children’s reading level.

Similarly, Room to Read Nepal has generated over 50 read aloud and over 20 read aloud videos to help children continue to improve their reading skill and habit.

Physical Resource Delivery We distributed 11,000 literacy workbooks to communities that have little to no access to the internet at home. These exercise books were designed to help parents and teachers with simplified teaching model, and with contents that are most essential in building children’s literacy skills.

Girls' Education Program

Keeping girls in school so they can reach their potential

Supporting Girls via Phone Our social mobilizers continued to provide individual mentoring to girls through an average of 15-minute telephone conversations. This session allows the mentors to support girls through the crisis, ensure their well being and encourage the girls to continue their learning at home. These meetings offer safe spaces for girls to address the challenges they may be facing, such as the pressure to drop out of school to marry early or being subject to violence.

Life Skills via Radio

Our essential life-skill sessions through radio provide girls with skill sets that inspire and encourage them to continue their education and cope with difficult situations that have arisen due to the pandemic. Throughout the year we produced 55 episodes related to success stories of alumina, life skills This helps girls to advocate for themselves and others and forge their own paths.

Relief Package distribution Identifying and Supporting Girls most at Risk room to reading’s “Risk and Response” is a powerful early warning system that helps our staff identify and immediately act on risk factors that are strongly associated with dropouts. Our interventions give emotional support and help in problem-solving.

To assuage the burden of food security and financial difficulty from the family- so that girls can concentrate on their studies and continue learning at home 74 families under the Girls’ Education Program in Banke and Bardiya districts were provided with relief packages.

With support from Lions Club of Kathmandu Concern and in partnership with local government the relief was distributed to children at risk of dropping out.

Teacher Training

Integrated Curriculum Training

We provided teachers with training on ways to keep children learning from home. Our literacy program team also provided Nepali Language workbook training which supported them to teach parents and children by using phone.

We supported the Government of Nepal's Integrated Curriculum by providing teacher training in Nuwakot, Tanahun, Palpa, Syangka, Salyan. Through 5 days workshop, over 300 teachers were introduced to the new curriculum and teaching guideline provided by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Published 10 Children's Storybook Room to Read continued the production of Children's Books and created 10 news age appropriated children's storybooks in the Nepali Language. It is carefully designed to develop literacy skills, as well as to foster excitement about reading in children. Similarly, we also created two books on climate change for children to get informed about the environment around them.

Activities Best Reader Award 2020 On the occasion of 13th Library Day, Sugisma Kadel, a student benefiting from Room to Read's Literacy Program was awarded the prize of "Best Reader in Nepal 2020" by the Ministry of Education, Science and Information Technology.

She had a record of checking out 296 books from the school library supported by Room to Read.

International Literacy Day This year, Room to Read Nepal celebrated Literacy Day through the #ReadTogether campaign where we encouraged parents and caregivers to instill in children a love for reading by encouraging the joy of reading together. We also conducted various virtual speech competitions and literacy skilldeveloping activities in our program districts.

International Day of Girl Child

On October 11th, we called for action to pledge for girls' right to education and gender equality through education. Our Girls' Education Program has transformed the lives of over 8000 girls across Nepal, and throughout the month we engaged with families, communities, schools, and girls to raise awareness through speech, photography, and drawing competition.

Panel Discussion: Role of Children's Book to Support Children's Learning Process

Room to Read spoke with experts and policymakers from Curriculum Development Center (CDC), Nepalese society for Children's Literature (NESCHIL), Kathalaya Inc. to discuss the children's literature scene in Nepal and the role of children's books in their overall development.

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