Dr. Michael R. MacDonald
My attention span is not one of my strengths. My attention to detail is even worse. My wife wonders, sometimes, how I have made it this far in life.
One of my bad habits is to skim over what I am reading. As a result, I often miss important parts of a story. Thankfully, my wife misses very little.
If you are a skimmer like me, you may have missed important parts of my website, A Warm Heart. In case you missed it (from the About section), here is a story that inspired me to set this all up.
A very GSD story, which may also inspire you.
He was Wandering in Nepal
A few years ago, I discovered a moving story about a Microsoft executive, John Wood, who came upon a school library in rural Nepal with no books in it.
John grew up loving books and it broke his heart to see a school and a library, but no books for the children. He wanted to do something to help.
So John came back the next year and hand-delivered over 3,000 donated books to village schools in Nepal. The excitement and gratitude from the children, teachers and the community was overwhelming for him.
This profound experience inspired him to quit his job at Microsoft and start the international non-profit organization Room to Read. You can learn more about John’s story from his best-selling book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World and his many videos and talks.
Their Next Part was Even Better
This is a great story about the start of Room to Read – a tremendous achievement by John Wood and his co-founders Erin Ganju and Dinesh Shrestha. But I was not totally sold – until I read about the next big step they took.
As they started to bring books to school libraries, and in many cases creating libraries where none existed, they found that there were almost no books written for young children in their own language. In many cases, no books had ever even been published.
The founders discovered that for many of the parents, in the developing countries where Room to Read works, there is no money to buy books. What little money they have goes to food and basic necessities for survival. And because there were so few people to buy such books, almost none were written or published. There was no market for them.
Real GSD
To move past this big obstacle, the Room to Read founders decided to do the publishing themselves. No one else was doing this, so they jumped right in. This is what John Wood calls GSD or getting shit done. (Check out his funny and inspiring video.)
They realized that local language books are necessary to help children develop the skills and habits of reading. As co-founder Erin Ganju said, “That’s how children learn to read – by starting with the language they hear spoken in their home environment.”
To get this publishing started, they knew they wanted to set up local people to create these books. First, they scouted for local talent and were surprised at the vigorous response.
As John Wood wrote, “Once word got out that Room to Read was willing to pay local authors and artists, we had 60 – 70 manuscript submissions within the first month.”
The Publishing Program was Off and Running
Co-founder Dinesh Shrestha described what happened.
“We published fourteen books during the first two years: I was so so happy. In Nepal, we single-handedly created a market for children’s picture books. All those commercial publishers who didn’t agree with me are now producing similar books.”
John was just as excited.
“Within three years, our teams in Cambodia, Laos, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam were producing more than a hundred new and original titles each year, using local authors and artists.” GSD can really make things happen.
This put me over the top. I was all in. And have been ever since.
They Didn’t Stop There
There is more good news. Books developed in partnership with Room to Read are regularly recognized for their superior quality, winning several national book awards.
In 2011, the UN acknowledged Room to Read’s contribution to children’s book publishing with the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy.
In 2020, Room to Read was one of three Library of Congress Literacy Award winners.
A Win Win
Room to Read also supports the local publishing industry by producing those children’s books entirely in-country — purchasing materials locally and partnering with local printers.
This is not just a win for children and teachers. This is a big win for the whole community.
And there is even more, much more. For example, Room to Read promotes gender equality through direct mentoring and support with their Girls Education Program.
I could go on and on – and I will. So stay tuned to my ongoing newsletter, A Warm Heart for many details and warm inspiration to come.
Until next time, let our warm hearts soar!
Michael
michael@aWarmHeart.ca
And thank you for caring that little bit extra – it really makes a big difference.
