Room to Read is just the ticket to break cycle of poverty

In 1998, Microsoft’s 35-year-old Director of Business Development for the Greater China Region took a vacation that changed his life. Trekking through a remote Himalayan village, he was invited by a local teacher to visit their school. John Wood was shocked to see the school’s 20 tattered books were locked away to protect them from the students. “It was an experience I’ll never forget,” says Wood, who founded the award-winning, nonprofit organization Room to Read to give the world’s children the lifelong gift of education. Since Room to Read’s inception in 2000, 1.3 million in kids in Vietnam, Laos, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Zambia now have access to enhanced education infrastructure. As Wood says, “Education is the ticket out of poverty. Who hasn’t had one relative in their family that broke the cycle of poverty by betting educated?” Read more or visit www.roomtoread.org.