Drawing inspiration from 'Room to Read'

Room to Read is a non-profit charitable organization founded by former Microsoft employee John Woodand based in San Francisco. It is dedicated to building education infrastructure in developing countries to end the cycle of poverty.

It all statrted in 1998, when John Wood, Microsoft’s director of business development for China, went on an eighteen-day trek through the Himalayas. He stopped for tea and met a headmaster from Bahundanda, Nepal, who invited him to visit his school. John found eighty kids crammed into classrooms for fifteen to twenty, and 450 children studying from cast-off Danielle Steele–type adult novels.

“Perhaps, sir, you could help us get more books?” the headmaster requested.

After returning from the trek, Wood managed to collect over 3,000 books from friends, acquaintances, and donors. He then returned with eight donkeys and delivered the books. In 2000, after a rough transition out of Microsoft, he founded Room to Read and is operating it to this day.

John Woods left a all-consuming lucrative job at Microsoft to follow the passion of his heart to donate books and build education infrastructure and he couldn't be happier to see the smiles on the children's faces.

Room to Read has created more than 2,000 schools and libraries for children across Asia. From his first trip to Nepal, where he was struck by the country's 70% illiteracy rate, through his courageous decision to leave Microsoft, to the logistics of growing and expanding the Room to Read initiative, Wood comes out as an honest and caring person.


The Room to Read's unique "adopt a project" form of donating, in which you are told how much money is needed to build a school/library/computer lab or award a scholarship and therefore know exactly what your money goes to, has met with considerable success. They have operations in many South and Southeast Asian countries, including Nepal, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka. They are currently expanding to Africa, with South Africa being their first country in that region.