WORLD CHANGE

2023 Room to Read World Change Challenge!

I’m proud to be a Room to Read Author Advocate. In 2023 I will be working with the stellar team of Australian authors and illustrators who support Room to Read and, once again, partnering with schools across the country to raise funds to support the organisation’s Literacy Program.

We invite your class or school to DROP EVERYTHING AND READ on or around International Literacy Day 2023 and help us reach our goal of $20,000 to buy 20,000 local-language books for kids in low-income nations.

It costs just $1 to put a local language storybook on the shelf of a school library. It costs just $40 to fill a shelf with books!

If you would like to participate, please send an email. We’d love to have you or your school onboard! Here is the secure donation page. And here’s how to get involved and do a fun, simple fundraiser at your school…

Ways to Get Involved

If Drop Everything and Read isn’t for you, there are many other potential FUNdraisers like Somerset College’s amazing Slime a Teacher initiative enticing eager students to donate gold coins at lunchtime to see their teachers slimed! Check out the pics. Surely there are teachers at your school who would volunteer? Or perhaps a gold coin bookswap, a sausage sizzle, a coin trail? There are more fundraising ideas here.

About Room to Read

In 2023 our team of Australian writer ambassadors & author advocates will raise funds to support the organisation’s inspiring Literacy Program. The Literacy Program ensures that children develop literacy skills and the habit of reading in early primary school to have a strong foundation for learning throughout their lifetimes.

More than 50% of primary school children living in low and middle income countries cannot read. With your help we can change this. Room to Read creates local language storybooks that readers at various levels can enjoy. RtR also develops educators, book creators and book publishers and grows libraries and library programs in which children and literature can flourish.

Since 2009, Australian writers and illustrators (see full list below) have helped Room to Read to spread the word about the importance of education and also raised over $215,000 to support Room to Read’s Literacy and Girls’ Education Programs.

By DROPPING EVERYTHING AND READING you will be helping children learn to LOVE to read.

Here’s the video we made with kids for the first year of our Challenge:

Room to Read Writer-Ambassador Team

In 2012 I helped initiate the Room to Read World Change Challenge (with funding and support from Stubbies Schoolwear) and, since that time, in partnership with school students in Australia and Hong Kong, and the Room to Read writer-ambassador team we have funded school libraries, local-language book publishing and girls’ education in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Here are the amazing authors and illustrators who make up our team: Deborah Abela, Tristan Bancks, Sarah Davis, Susanne Gervay, Jacqueline Harvey, Zanni Louise, Belinda Murrell, Oliver Phommavanh, Sarah Brennan, Dianne Wolfer, Paul and Beth Macdonald, Frané Lessac, James Foley, Gus Gordon, Libby Hathorn, Sophie Masson, Sally Rippin, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Pamela Cook, Kate Forsyth, Emily Maguire, Melina Marchetta, Alice Pung.

I hope you’ll join us in 2023!

Change the World in Five Minutes Every Day at School

On another note, our short film for SBS: Change the World in Five Minutes, Every Day at School has passed 600,000 Youtube views!

It’s a fast-paced five-minute film, following a class of year five and six kids as they spend the first five minutes of every day at school taking action to change the world in positive ways. It’s about getting fired up and doing something about the state of your community and the planet. The film has found a life of its own on Youtube and inspired individuals and classes to take action. The film has been screened widely at events in Australia, the UK and America.

The movie is based on the book Change the World for Ten Bucks.