Room to Read

The Swarovski Foundation has supported Room to Read's Girls’ Education Programme across Asia since 2015. Through the programme, participating girls receive the support needed to stay in school, progress towards further education or employment, and acquire the skills and agency they need to realise their potential.

Sustainable Development Goals Met

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Room to Read

Image Courtesy of Room to Read

Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality through education. They are achieving this goal by helping children in historically low-income communities develop literacy skills and a habit of reading, and by supporting girls as they build life skills to succeed in school and negotiate key life decisions. They collaborate with governments and other partner organisations to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale.

Room to Read has benefited more than 39 million children and has worked in 24 countries and in more than 192,000 communities, providing additional support through remote solutions that facilitate learning beyond the classroom. Room to Read aims to benefit 40 million children by 2025.

Our Partnership

Image Courtesy of Room to Read

Since 2015, the Swarovski Foundation and Room to Read have worked together to best meet the needs of underserved youth. The Girls’ Education Programme supports girls to overcome social and economic barriers by equipping them with the life skills necessary to succeed in school and beyond. Over the years, our grants have supported more than 1,750 children and adolescents across Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, including 72 boys as part of a pilot programme in Cambodia designed to strengthen their awareness of harmful social norms.

Image Courtesy of Room to Read

The Room to Read Girls Education Programme include the following activities: life skills sessions to help girls develop competencies such as self-confidence, critical thinking or problem solving; individual and group mentoring sessions with educated, strong women who support girls emotionally and guide them through the programme; family and community engagement to create environments that support girls’ success, with workshops and meetings where communities can discuss the importance of sending their children to school; and material support to help participants with tuition fees, uniforms, transportation, school materials, and exam preparation services to ensure they can attend school.

To learn more visit roomtoread.org

Meet our other partners

Public Health Crises

Public health crises are not only a threat to human life but they can also significantly disrupt economies. In 2014, the Swarovski Foundation supported the efforts of Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam to help stop the spread of Ebola across West Africa. In 2020, we also partnered with the United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency to support safe births and prevent mother and child mortality in Yemen, as well as their global campaign to end child marriage in 2021.

Cost-of-Living Crisis

The cost-of-living crisis has been impacting people worldwide, with rising energy prices, food bills and fuel costs forcing people to make impossible choices. In 2023, we supported four organisations working to reduce the impact of the crisis on people: Caritas Tirol, which supports people who can no longer afford heating, food, or housing in Tyrol, Austria; Magic Breakfast, which provide healthy breakfasts to young people in the UK who arrive at school too hungry to learn; the Trussel Trust, which supports a network of food bank centres in the UK; and Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for homeless families with children in the USA.

Social Justice Crises

Inequalities connected to protected characteristics are on the rise around the world. In 2021, we supported organisations fighting for racial justice in the United States including the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund. We also partnered with WomanKind, which help survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual violence, and specialises in serving the Asian community.

Environmental Crises

Climate change is one of the defining crises of our time, fuelling natural disasters across the globe. Since its inception the Swarovski Foundation has acted to support those impacted by environmental crises, with grants to Shikshya Foundation Nepal following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal; to different branches of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement following the 2018 wildfires in Greece, the 2018 earthquake in Indonesia and the 2020 bushfires in Australia; to mothers2mothers following the 2023 cyclone in Mozambique; and to UK for UNHCR following the 2022 floods in Pakistan, the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, and the 2023 floods in Libya.

The Waterschool is an educational program developed to empower young people and their communities to become water ambassadors by providing tools, resources, and training to enable them to address their local water needs.

United Nations Population Fund: UNFPA

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency and they aim to achieve three world-changing results by 2030; End maternal death, end unmet need for family planning and end gender-based violence and all harmful practices.

Turquoise Mountain

Turquoise Mountain support Jordanians, Syrian and Palestinian refugee artisans, through an intensive jewellery apprenticeship programme.

Cherie Blair Foundation

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women enables female entrepreneurs in low and middle income countries to access the skills, technology, networks and financial services they need to turn thriving enterprises into sustainable businesses.

Orchid Project aims to end the practice of Female Genital Cutting (FGC).

MediCinema is a UK-wide charity that uses cinema to provide support for patients in hospitals and in care.

COVID-19 Response

The Swarovski Foundation supported The Fuel for Heroes campaign which provided healthy meals to frontline NHS health workers and their families. In response to the global pandemic and shortages in PPE, our Foundation also supported our partner NEST with launching its PPE Purchasing Initiative. The Swarovski Foundation also supported the FIT Student Emergency Fund to directly help Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) students struggling with issues like food insecurity, medical issues, housing and travel challenges, and tuition payments.

NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice.

The number of people displaced globally has reached unprecedented numbers, driven by escalating violence and the consequences of the climate crisis. The Swarovski Foundation is committed to supporting displaced people, with donations to the British Red Cross Society in Bangladesh, Yemen, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank; Save the Children and Oxfam in Syria; and Women for Women International in Afghanistan. Since 2019, we have partnered with UK for UNHCR, responding to a number of their emergency appeals for Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Türkiye and Ukraine, as well as supporting their efforts towards underfunded crises that have fallen out of the spotlight in Iraq, South Sudan and Syria.

Indonesian Earthquake and Tsunami

Following the 2018 earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, which killed more than 4,300 people, the Swarovski Foundation supported the Red Cross in their relief efforts – helping to build shelters and provide medical treatment for others affect by the crisis.

Conservation International

Conservation International uses science and policy to protect nature.

Central Saint Martins

The Swarovski Foundation and Central Saint Martins launched the Swarovski Foundation Scholarship Program for Fashion and Design students in 2011.

mothers2mothers

Mothers2mothers is a non-profit that aims to end paediatric AIDS and create healthy families and communities by training and employing mothers living with HIV as community health workers.

Women for Women International

In countries affected by conflict, Women for Women International gives women access to knowledge and economic resources, encouraging them to lead the change towards more peaceful societies.

Teach for Thailand

Teach for Thailand is a non-profit organisation and is a partner within Teach for All, a global network of partners developing leadership in classrooms and communities to ensure all children can fulfil their potential.

Teach For Austria

Teach For Austria promotes access to education. Teach For All’s vision is a world in which all children can fulfil their potential, regardless of their circumstances.

Australian Wildfires

The fires in Australia in 2019 and 2020 forced more than 250,000 people from their homes and killed over half a billion animals. The Swarovski Foundation’s support for the Australian Red Cross helped provide food, water and relief items, as well as psychological first aid to reduce trauma.

Centre for London

Centre for London is a think-tank and charity dedicated to making London a fair city.

Cancer Aid Tyrol

Cancer Aid Tyrol promotes cancer research projects, and provides counselling services and information on detection and prevention methods for people in the Tyrol region of Austria.

Creatives For Our Future

Creatives for Our Future is a global mentorship and grant initiative designed in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships to accelerate the next generation of creatives in sustainable development.

The Swarovski Foundation Centre for Learning is an inspiring facility equipped to promote and support design education in the Design Museum.

Teach for Thailand

Teach for Thailand is a non-profit organisation and is a partner within Teach for All, a global network of partners developing leadership in classrooms and communities to ensure all children can fulfil their potential.

Cost-of-Living Crisis

The cost-of-living crisis has been impacting people worldwide, with rising energy prices, food bills and fuel costs forcing people to make impossible choices. In 2023, we supported four organisations working to reduce the impact of the crisis on people: Caritas Tirol, which supports people who can no longer afford heating, food, or housing in Tyrol, Austria; Magic Breakfast, which provide healthy breakfasts to young people in the UK who arrive at school too hungry to learn; the Trussel Trust, which supports a network of food bank centres in the UK; and Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for homeless families with children in the USA.

Social Justice Crises

Inequalities connected to protected characteristics are on the rise around the world. In 2021, we supported organisations fighting for racial justice in the United States including the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund. We also partnered with WomanKind, which help survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual violence, and specialises in serving the Asian community.

Environmental Crises

Climate change is one of the defining crises of our time, fuelling natural disasters across the globe. Since its inception the Swarovski Foundation has acted to support those impacted by environmental crises, with grants to Shikshya Foundation Nepal following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal; to different branches of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement following the 2018 wildfires in Greece, the 2018 earthquake in Indonesia and the 2020 bushfires in Australia; to mothers2mothers following the 2023 cyclone in Mozambique; and to UK for UNHCR following the 2022 floods in Pakistan, the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, and the 2023 floods in Libya.