Mobilize your network
Get the word out that you support READ Global! Host a casual fundraiser or start an email campaign and mobilize your network to help rural communities in Asia. Together, you can help fill a library with books, build a Women's Empowerment Center or even fund an entire READ Center.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know how we can help you.
In late 2011, Sarah Street embarked on a fitness and nutrition regime.... and today, 120 pounds lighter, she has lost almost half her body weight. In January this year, Sarah decided to use this new found strength to take on a new challenge and signed up to run - the New York Half Marathon on March 17th, 2013. Feeling newly empowered, Sarah is using it as an opportunity to raise money to empower others through READ Global! Sarah has set an ambitious goal of raising $50,000 to fund the creation of a Satellite Center in Nepal serving a remote group of villages. A Satellite Center provides a smaller building with a library, computers, livelihoods trainings and women’s empowerment programs while utilizing the expanded resources of a larger Center located within a day’s walk. Support Sarah's Race for Nepal and donate today! Your investment will help create sustainable prosperity for a village and help break the cycle of poverty.
In the fall of 2012, a teenager from Malibu changed the lives of hundreds of rural villagers in Bhutan by helping launch a READ Center in Chuzagang village. 16-year old Claire Thomsen spent a year of her life traveling to the far reaches of the world with her parents. After visiting 27 countries, she was most deeply moved by what she experienced in rural Bhutan. “None of the Bhutanese children I met had heard of America, and many only knew of the countries that neighbor Bhutan. After spending time with a few kids my age, I knew right away that I wanted to help them learn about the rest of the world. I just had to figure out how.” With the support and guidance of her family, and after meeting Thinley Choden, country director of READ Bhutan, Claire decided to raise $50,000 to help build an entire Community Library and Resource Center in Chuzagang, Bhutan. Through a direct mail campaign and email appeals, and a fundraising event inspired by the unique Bhutanese culture, this exceptional high school student has already reached 84% of her fundraising goal! She plans to visit the READ Center in Chuzagang in the spring of 2013. Help Claire reach her goal by stocking the Chuzagang library with books and launching educational programs there!
Dabeki Timilsina can barely write her name, but she has given her entire community the opportunity to become literate. A mother of three in the rural farming village of Nuwakot, Nepal, Dabeki chose to give her dowry of land - worth 20 Nepali lakhs (or $25,300) – to build a READ Community Library and Resource Center for her village. Dabeki’s mother in law passed the land on to her, and their entire family supported donating it to the community. When asked what compelled her to give this incredible gift, Dabeki simply says that she wants her children’s generation to be educated, and for her entire community to be able to read and write some day. Dabeki has already joined the women’s savings cooperative within the READ Center, and hopes to take part in women’s health trainings that are planned for the future. The center is currently under construction, and is already a source of pride to the whole village.
Nicole Melancon and her father, avid hikers, always dreamed of traveling to Nepal. Last fall, they celebrated their 40th and 70th birthdays with this long-awaited trip. Nicole decided she wanted to give something more to Nepal, and after searching out organizations that supported rural empowerment and education she found READ Global. "The fundraising idea came to me over the summer. I had recently spent a week volunteering in Costa Rica and realized the importance of giving back to the community. I was amazed by how in a week's time, I felt like I was really able to contribute. I decided that from now on, I want to give back to each country I visit." A stay-at-home Mom, Nicole creatively mobilized her network of friends and family to raise money for READ. She babysat on Fridays, started a lemonade stand with her kids and held a garage sale. She inspired her friends and neighbors to make donations and sought out a matching donation from her husband's employer. In total, Nicole raised $4,000. This past October, she and her father trekked the world-famous Annapurna Circuit and walked through villages scattered among 25,000 feet Himalayan giants, where they saw first-hand the beauty of Nepal and also the immense need for educational resources. "I learned how important education is to the people of Nepal," Nicole wrote to us, "especially the remote villagers who don't have schools." Read more about Nicole Melancon on her international travel and culture blog Third Eye Mom.