South China Morning Post
December 9, 2007 Sunday
The gift of learning
BYLINE: Students are coming up with original fund-raising ideas for charity
book project, writes Miranda Yeung
SECTION: YOUNGPOST; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 486 words
Hundreds of flights land at Hong Kong International Airport every day. But
John Wood was waiting for a particular Boeing 777 on November 30.
The plane was carrying 400,000 books for Mr. Wood's charity, Room to Read,
which is dedicated to eradicating poverty through education.
Mr. Wood set up Room to Read in 1998 in order to afford underprivileged
children the lifelong gift of education.
He was inspired to leave his job as an executive at Microsoft and do something
to help following a business trip to Nepal , where he saw that only a handful
books were available for students in remote village schools.
"I felt it was very unfair that children in many developing countries were not
given the chance to learn.
"So I felt I needed to do something," says Mr. Wood.
So far, Room to Read has delivered 1.4 million English books to schools in
poverty-stricken areas, and built 287 schools and 5,000 libraries.
Last month it received 400,000 books from publishing group Scholastic which
were transported from the U.S. to Asia thanks to Cathay Pacific and Boeing.
Mr. Wood says the scheme generally runs without a hitch.
"It is a simple idea that is worth supporting. People, like me, believe
education is the ultimate way to end poverty. And they want to make an effort
to give back to society."
Earlier this year, Mr. Wood invited hundreds of local students to get involved
by introducing the Literacy One campaign.
The idea of "students helping students" encourages Hong Kong youngsters to
raise funds for underprivileged students in countries like Nepal , Vietnam ,
and Cambodia .
Seventeen schools - both international and local - signed up for the programme
and organised various events to raise money.
King George V students, for example, incorporated Room to Read's mission with
celebrations for Diwali, the Indian new year. The school raised more than
$44HK,000.
Sha Tin College organised a 24-hour badminton-a-thon: students stayed at
school overnight and took turns to play matches. They also set up a Facebook
account to spread out the message.
The youngest contributor so far is Jaq Lai. The five-year-old raised $1HK,000
on his own for Room to Read.
"I set up a store and sold some of my toys and books to raise money. I did it
because I know that many poor people don't have books," Jaq says.
His mother says:"It was Jaq's idea to raise money. One day, when he was
begging me to get him a new toy, I explained that many children didn't have
toys and books. So he suggested organising a sale to raise money to help them."
Mr Wood is delighted with the efforts: "I'm impressed by the creative
fund-raising activities, like the badminton-a-thon and the Facebook group.
"I think one reason why we receive the greatest response from Hong Kong
students is the physical proximity - they live in Asia and they are just
helping their neighbours."
Visit www.roomtoread.org for more details.
=========================================================
John Wood adalah seorang mantan eksekutif di Microsoft yang wilayah kerjanya
mencakup Asia Pasifik. Selepas dari Microsoft, John Wood menjalankan sebuah
lembaga nirlaba bernama Room to Read yang menyediakan banyak buku untuk
anak-anak di negara miskin.
Kisahnya tersebut dia bukukan dalam LEAVING MICROSOFT TO CHANGE THE WORLD yang
terbit di Indonesia dengan judul sama.
=========================================================
Info-info tentang dunia perbukuan dan buku-buku baru Bentang Pustaka, kunjungi
www.mizan.com
Bentang Pustaka, Jl. Pandega Padma No. 19 Yogyakarta 55284, Telp. 0274-517373,
Faks. 0274-541441, E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Blog:
klub-sastra-bentang.blogspot.com, Groups: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Web: www.mizan.com
Untuk pemesanan, silakan hubungi:
Mizan Media Utama (MMU), Telp. 022-7815500, Faks. 022-7802288, E-mail: [EMAIL
PROTECTED]
---------------------------------
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
