A World of Reading

24 Apr 2014

A World of Reading

Re: David Risher (MBA 1991)

Topics: Education-Early Childhood Education Technology-Mobile Technology Geography-Global

David Risher (MBA 1991) cofounded Worldreader to help one million children who today have nothing to read get access to the libraries of the world. The nonprofit has sent one million e-books to more than 13,000 children in Africa. It started with providing e-readers to six schools in Ghana, in partnership with USAID and private funders, and is now in Kenya, Tanzania, and six other sub-Saharan African countries, where it makes thousands of books available via download to Africa’s cell-phone network.

“All of us want to be committed to something bigger than ourselves,” says Risher, a father of two and a former Amazon.com executive. When he went on a world tour with his family, he saw a padlock on an unused library at an orphanage in Ecuador. “It was my ah-ha! moment, when I realized we really can change the world,” says Risher.

He explains that there are more than 200 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have little or no access to books. “Imagine a world where illiteracy has been eradicated, letting billions of people prosper. That’s what we want to help achieve,” he says.

(Published April 2014)

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David Risher

MBA 1991

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