Hero of the Day--John Wood

Nicholas Kristof, writing in today's New York Times datelined Cai Lei, Vietnam, writes about former Microsoft executive John Wood, who just handed out his 10 millionth book at a library he founded in a village in the Mekong Delta.

Rather than remember Andrew Carnegie as a ruthless capitalist, we remember him for his triumph of philanthropy the construction of more than 2,500 libraries world wide. Kristof writes that this stimulus to learning was thought never to be matched. But John Wood's charity, Room to Read, has now surpassed Carnegie by many times. He has already opened 12,000 libraries worldwide and another 1,500 schools.

Wood began this enterprise in 1998 when he was a Microsoft marketing director and came upon a school in a remote section of Nepal serving 450 children but with no books. He promised to help and soon delivered a mountain of books by a caravan of donkeys. The children were so ecstatic that Wood quit his job, left his girlfriend and founded Room to Read.

His first real challenge was actually to find books wanted to read in their own languages. To date, he has published 591 titles in languages including Khmer, Nepalese, Zulu, Lao, Xhosa, Tharu, Tsonga, Garhweli and Bundeli.

Wood's Room to Read now has fund-raising chapters in 53 cities around the world. Wood's marketing line is a good one--Where can you get more bang for the buck than starting a library for $5,000?

Woods, now 47, wants to have 100,000 libraries ,reaching 50 million kids, in twenty years. The chances are he will make it.

A great low-cost idea to change the world.