Oprah Airs Interview with John Wood on August 20

The Oprah Winfrey Show will re-air Oprah's interview with Room to Read founder and CEO, John Wood, this Wednesday, August 20. Room to Read's global brand received a huge boost from the original broadcast in April 2007, which first re-aired in December 2007. Since the first broadcast, 6,800 Oprah viewers from around the world were inspired to give more than US$1 million to Room to Read. The show's worldwide audience responded not only through donations, but also created growth in chapters, employment applications and other media inquiries. If you've been telling colleagues, friends and family about Room to Read, this is the perfect opportunity to let them know they can learn more about us on The Oprah Winfrey Show this Wednesday!

Room to Read Featured in American Idol Alum's Music Video

Multi-platinum artist and American Idol alum Chris Daughtry released a video in mid-July 2008 with his band Daughtry for the single "What About Now" It features 12 different non-profits including Room to Read. Directed by music-video legend Kevin Kerslake, "What About Now" gives screen time to people who have been instrumental in effecting change throughout the world. The video was MTV's number one video pick the week it was released. Watch the video here.

2007 Annual Report

I am privileged to share with you our 2007 Annual Report, reflecting Room to Read's progress on our promise to provide the lifelong gift of education to millions of children in the developing world. I hope that as you read this report, you will sense our deep commitment to deliver results in our quest to educate the world's most disadvantaged children. I also hope that you will be inspired at what an amazing organization our donor family has helped to create. From the entire Room to Read team, thank you for your support of our work.

Warmest regards,

John Wood
Founder and CEO

Credit Suisse Commits US$250,000 to Funding Girls' Education in India and Vietnam

Room to Read is proud to announce that Credit Suisse has continued its wonderful support of our organization and our work by committing US$250,000 to fund a year of holistic education for 850 underprivileged girls in India and Vietnam.

Over the last several years, Credit Suisse has been one of our top corporate supporters, having contributed over $500,000 to our post-tsunami rebuilding efforts in Sri Lanka and our ongoing work in India. They have also been extremely generous with in-kind support, providing Room to Read with office space in both London and Hong Kong, thereby allowing us to deploy our donor dollars to our programs, instead of expensive office rental expenses in these locations.

The current grant makes Credit Suisse the largest corporate sponsor of our Girls' Scholarship Program and provides us with the ability to maintain our rapid expansion of the program, which will nearly double from 4,000 girls to over 7,000 by the end of 2008. According to the World Bank, educating girls is the single best investment in the developing world, and we are excited to have Credit Suisse on board to help us achieve this. Through their funding, Room to Read will provide enhanced educational opportunities to each of these girls, as well as deliver a host of other services designed to promote individual empowerment, foster integral age-appropriate life skills, and ultimately prepare each girl for greater and more rewarding choices and alternatives beyond secondary school.

We are very proud to partner with global financial leaders such as Credit Suisse and look forward to working with them over the coming years as we continue in our endeavor to provide a brighter future for thousands of children throughout the developing world.

Scholastic Summer Reading Buzz

Room to Read has been fortunate to receive hundreds of thousands of donated children's books from Scholastic over the last eight years, and our partnership with them only continues to deepen and grow. We were very excited to be selected as the charity partner for Scholastic's "Summer Reading BUZZ!" initiative this summer. This initiative seeks to address the common problem of the "summer slide" – the loss of reading skills that many children experience when they are out of school over the summer – by encouraging them to keep reading throughout the summer. For every four books that a child reads and logs online between now and the end of the summer, Scholastic will donate one children's book to Room to Read. Thanks to this initiative, a donation of up to 50,000 Scholastic books will help to fill our libraries in Asia and Africa! For more information on the Summer Reading BUZZ! and to find out how to get your children involved, please visit www.scholastic.com/buzz.

Scott Kapnick Joins Board of Directors

Room to Read is proud to announce that Scott Kapnick, CEO of Highbridge Principal Strategies, has joined the Board of Directors. Scott, who is also a Managing Partner and Member of the Board of Highbridge Capital Management, LLC, joined the Board this spring.

John Wood, CEO and Founder of Room to Read, shared: "We are thrilled to have someone of Scott's caliber join the Room to Read Board of Directors. With Scott running the finance committee, and Craig Bruya (former Microsoft CFO) heading the audit committee, we have two great additions to a truly world class Board of Directors!"

Highbridge Capital Management is a leading alternative global investment and asset management organization. The Principal Strategies Group manages a series of alternative asset investment funds, including ones invested in credit related securities and private equity. Scott is a retired Management Committee Member, Partner and Co-Head of Global Investment Banking at the Goldman Sachs Group. He was also Co-Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs International. He spent 12 out of his 21 years at Goldman Sachs in Europe.

Scott received his BA degree, magna cum laude, from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and holds a combined JD/MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chairman of the Churchill Archives Centre Campaign Board, Managing Director of The Metropolitan Opera and Board Member of the Naples Botanical Garden.

Nepal and Room to Read's Program Implementation

2007 and 2008 heralded unprecedented changes in Nepal: the country witnessed a 240 year-old Hindu monarchy give way to a republic system, and people exercised their political freedom through the historical constitutional assembly elections. Assembly members voted in the Himalayan nation's first post-royal president Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, who has said he will use his new position to try to unite Nepal and address grievances among the country's ethnic communities.

However, economic hardships continue. The Central Bank of Nepal and the Ministry of Finance have reported that the inflation rate is climbing and is currently at about 12 percent. The cost of construction is precariously high due to the increased cost of fuel and building materials such as cement, wood and brick. Layered on to this issue and impacting Room to Read's work is the sudden shortage of construction materials in Nepal. Because of the huge demand for these goods in both China and India, they have become increasingly scarce on the open market. Exacerbating this shortage is India's recent decision to restrict exports of fuel, cement, and steel to Nepal. As a landlocked country, Nepal is heavily reliant on India for these resources; however, India's high-level of economic growth is absorbing all available goods. As a result of the combination of inflation and the unexpected shortage of materials, costs have increased to unanticipated levels for both Nepalis and the NGOs trying to implement promised projects within deserving communities.

Closures (or Bandhs) of particular areas or roads within the country, often for months at a time, have slowed project implementation due to restricted access and safety concerns for our program teams. Regions of the country where project work began have been inaccessible, leading to significant delays in our ability to select communities, implement the construction process and complete our projects.

Despite these challenges, Room to Read continues to avidly pursue our goals. As of July 2008, the Room to Read team in Nepal has constructed more than 170 schools. "This year we are working to construct 40 schools in different districts of Nepal. Due to the increase in the cost of construction materials, it is becoming very challenging to continue the ongoing work in schools," says Pushkar Shrestha, Room to Read Nepal's Country Director. "Nevertheless, we are working hard to continue school construction in partnership with different communities so the students have better classrooms to study in." In the face of these additional challenges, communities continue to rally to meet their challenge grant commitments in order to provide educational opportunity for their children in villages across Nepal.

Shrestha stressed that more support is needed to address this situation effectively and is thankful to the donors that have blessed Room to Read programs in Nepal with rich educational resources. "We very much appreciate what has been contributed by individuals and organizations to help the schools of Nepal. However, in the changing economic scenario and with the increase in the cost of construction material, it would really help if we could provide more support to these schools," he says. Room to Read is committed to doing just this and we thank all of our investors for helping us meet these new and unanticipated challenges!

Laotian Student Thao Pajuay Phankommadam's Dream of Books Comes True Through Room to Read's Local Language Publishing Program

"Life in my village is harsh. It is in a very remote area. All of the villagers make their living from farming, and most are very poor. The village has no electricity and no running water. Children in the village do not have many educational opportunities. The school has always been in bad shape, and for the longest time we had no library or books for the students to read – not even textbooks for teachers to use.

I remember the morning our teacher told us we were going to receive a library from Room to Read. Everyone in the class was so excited. Our school now has a library with so many books! We have folktales, picture books, short stories, comic books, novels, history books and many others which we had never even imagined before.

The library opens every day for the students to use. Now I have so many books to read! I love the comic book "Kampha Wants to Go to School." On weekends I bring books home from school. The children in my neighborhood will come to my house and listen to me tell stories. At night I read the books to my parents, brothers and sisters. Before we received the library, I used to daydream about what it would be like to read books. Now with all of these new books, my dreams have come true."

Volunteer Opportunities

Room to Read has over 30 Chapters and continues to grow at a rapid pace. During the first half of the year, new Chapters were founded in Austin, TX; Belgium; Munich; Oxford, UK and Sydney, Australia. If you are interested in becoming involved with a local Chapter, assisting in the planning of a Chapter event or helping to spread the word about Room to Read in your community, visit our website at www.roomtoread.org/volunteer and fill out a volunteer application. Our Chapters are vital to Room to Read's success!

Join Us for a Room to Read Event and Help Educate Children in the Developing World!

During the fall, our global Volunteer Chapters will be planning numerous events. When you attend a Room to Read event you will learn more about our work and meet other globally-minded individuals. For more information and to see if there is a Room to Read event near you, please visit www.roomtoread.org/events.

Among Women: Inspired to Help Women and Girls in Africa

In October of 2007, 29 women traveled to South Africa on a trip organized by alumnae associations from top US women's colleges. Called "Among Women: An International Dialogue", the trip aimed to connect participants with South African women and provide insight into how their lives have been shaped since apartheid officially ended in 1994. Over the course of the 10 day trip, the group experienced first-hand the incredible wealth disparities that plague the resource-rich country.

Inspired by the many incredible women they met during their travels, Among Women participants decided to band together to help South Africa's disadvantaged women and children. After researching a number of organizations, they approached Room to Read about fundraising to support our growing Reading Room program in South Africa. They chose to dream big and set a target goal of raising $50,000 to provide children in Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape with access to high quality English and local language books. They are well on their way towards reaching their ambitious goal. Among Women members have reached out to their friends and family, spoken at local alumnae and book club gatherings, written articles for their alumnae magazines, and created a website to inform people about their fundraising efforts: www.amongwomensouthafrica.org. As one member was quoted in the Spring 2008 Barnard Magazine, "I thought I was joining a group of women on a trip, but I learned I was joining a movement!"