The 2016 Room to Read World Change Challenge is now over. Check out the amazing list of TOP FUNDRAISING SCHOOLS. Details of the 2017 World Change Challenge will be announced soon. Meanwhile, get in touch if you’d like to be involved and help Australian authors work with students to provide books and educational opportunities to kids in the developing world.
The 2016 Challenge
In 2016 join forces with Room to Read‘s stellar team of writer ambassadors to help fund literacy programs for children in the world’s poorest countries.
Since 2012 school students in Australia have raised tens of thousands of dollars for Room to Read, funding LIBRARIES and local language children’s BOOKS in Cambodia, Nepal and eight other countries. This year our team of writer ambassadors invites you to join them as Leaders for Literacy.
Could your school community take Leadership for Literacy to ensure that children in low-income countries have the foundation skills they need to break the cycle of poverty?
Start by watching the video we created below, showing how easy it is to raise $500 at school in a single day!
How to get involved
Students, teachers, classes and schools all over Australia are encouraged to take Leadership for Literacy by creating their own wild and wonderful challenges to help raise money for Room to Read’s global literacy programs.
Star of the Sea Catholic School in Gladstone QLD, Somerset College on the Gold Coast and Adelaide’s Rosary School were our biggest fundraisers last year. But some kids donated their pocket money. Every dollar makes a big difference, putting another book into the hands of a child who otherwise might go without. Check out all the amazing fundraisers on our 2015 Everyday Hero Wonderwall.
FUNdraising Ideas
Book Swaps at school are also lots of fun. Children can swap their pre-loved books with other kids and, for just $1 per book, everyone walks away with a new story to read, and Room to Read can fund a local language book for a child in Nepal or one of its other program countries.
School Readathon / Drop Everything and Read: Set your own sponsored reading challenge!
Sponsored Silence where teachers and parents sponsor their noisiest kids to be quiet for a whole hour or even a whole day.
Book Fair: Lots of schools donate a portion of their school book-fair profits to the World Change Challenge.
Embarrass Your Teacher: Sponsor teachers to come to school dressed in super-embarrassing outfits.
Lattes for Literacy: Have a school coffee morning to make all those poor, caffeine-starved parents happy and donate the profits to the World Change Challenge.
School Sponge Throw: Nareena Hills Public School in NSW ran a profitable school sponge throw where students get revenge on their teachers for all that homework!
 |
get started today
★ Register your interest the World Change Challenge by emailing your questions and ideas to Room to Read’s wonderful Jennie Orchard.
★ Download the LEADERSHIP FOR LITERACY educator’s notes here.
★ Make a donation to our 2016 World Change Challenge | Everyday Hero page here.
★ Raise awareness and engage your community. Tell your friends and share the links via social media. Leave a comment below or, very soon, Like our World Change Challenge Facebook page and stay up-to-date!
PLAN A FUNDRAISING EVENT AROUND THESE
IMPORTANT LITERACY DATES:
Children’s Book Week – Saturday 20th to Friday 26th August
International Literacy Day – Thursday 8th September
International Day of the Girl Child – Tuesday 11th October
 |
| Around 5000 students at the 2015 Sydney Writers Festival watched the World Change Challenge video.
Fellow writer ambassador Jacqueline Harvey and I were lucky enough to witness their extraordinary enthusiasm. |
WIN!
Watch this space. Prizes, including book packs from major publishers announced very soon.
Room to Read Ambassadors Supporting the 2016 World Change Challenge Include Some of Australia’s Best-Loved Authors and Illustrators
Deborah Abela, Tristan Bancks, Maxine Beneba-Clarke, Jesse Blackadder, Sarah Brennan, Sarah Davis, James Foley, Kate Forsyth, Susanne Gervay, Gus Gordon, Jacqueline Harvey, Libby Hathorn, John Larkin, Frané Lessac, Melina Marchetta, Sophie Masson, Belinda Murrell, Oliver Phommavanh, Alice Pung, Sally Rippin and Dianne Wolfer.
 |
| Room to Read co-founder John Wood with Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai. |
‘Let us wage a global struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism and let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons … One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.’
– Malala
why support room to read?
Room to Read is an innovative global non–profit which seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in Asia and Africa by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Since it was founded in 2000, Room to Read has:
• Developed and launched literacy programs in 10 countries in Asia and Africa.
• Constructed almost 2000 schools.
• Established over 18,000 libraries.
• Published over 1200 original children’s books in 27 local languages.
• Launched literacy programs in 10 countries in Asia and Africa.
• Supported more than 31,000 girls through its Girls’ Education Program.
By the end of 2015, Room to Read had impacted 10 MILLION CHILDREN. And yet there are still 781 million illiterate people in the world, two thirds of them women and children.
Room to Read believes that World Change Starts with Educated Children®.
