Since 1991, the READ model has evolved from the simple idea of a rural library to a thriving network of Community Library and Resource Centers and for-profit enterprises in Bhutan, India and Nepal.
We have established programs in early childhood development, women's empowerment and livelihood skills. Every day, rural villagers are visiting READ Centers and improving their reading skills, learning how to access the Internet or accessing critical health information. Every day communities are becoming empowered.
After 20 years, we are renewing our commitment to inspiring rural prosperity through education, community and enterprise. By 2014, we aim to empower 16,000 women and girls, develop new training programs, introduce alternative energy to all new centers, and create more high-profit generating enterprises.
This year at the Beyond Access conference, the Jhuwani READ Center in Nepal won the People's Choice award for $10K for a program to prevent uterine prolapse in women - a common but preventable health concern in rural Nepal.
A recent Republica article (one of Nepal's primary newspapers) explores the need for and impact of programs like this in rural areas of South Asia, and why a library like Jhuwani is the perfect platform for this kind of development program.
To learn more about the program, take a look at this educational poster put together at the conference.
To see how far READ has come - from our first library in Nepal, to today - scroll through our interactive timeline below.
