Give the Gift of Reading: This One's For the Girls!

Ah, October. The month of my birth, the month of Halloween, and the last month before the insanity of the holidays kicks in.  School is in full swing, and the opportunity to learn new things and try out new ideas is an opportunity for many folks young and old all over the place.

This opportunity doesn't exist for everyone though, especially for girls and young women in various regions of the world.  Whether it's become of local economics, prejudice, or other factors, girls often don't get the chance to attend school at all, or are attending in facilities that aren't going to make the grade in the long run.

This is a real shame, since educational opportunities for girls have all kinds of positive benefits, including:

• Lower infant mortality rates
• Increased eventual wages
• Increased likelihood of educating the next generation
• Improved family health
• Success in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases
• Improvement of general economic development 

I know that the educational opportunities I've had have helped me all throughout my life and will continue to do so, so giving the gift of reading to young women who wouldn't otherwise receive it is a worthy activity indeed.

So what can we do to improve educational opportunities for young women all over the world?  After the success of the first round of Give the Gift of Reading back in March, I'm proud to bring it back in force, this time to benefit a totally awesome charity, Room to Read!  Specifically, this round of Give the Gift of Reading will benefit the Girls' Education Program!  Room to Read provides material support in the form of resources and school supplies, technical support in the form of networking between home, school, school administration, and local resources, as well as tutoring, medical care, mentoring, and other trainings, to ensure that girls who are at risk of leaving school or who are not currently in school because of economic or cultural pressures have the chance to succeed and to learn!

Ready to help out this worthy cause?  Here's the lowdown- for every comment left here at What Book is That? during the month of October, $.05 will be donated to the Room to Read Girls' Education Program for a maximum possible donation of $100.00.  Here are the specific guidelines, which are the same as last time:

1. Duplicate comments and spam don't count.
2. Comments must be left during the month of October, but the post on which you comment doesn't have to be from the month of October. Feel free to poke around!
3. Comments are all read by me so no nastiness or stupidity, please.
4. My replies to your comments count.
5. Meaningful comments are definitely preferred to meaningless ones.

All this month there will be giveaways, guest posts, and other exciting things, and every comment you leave can win you great prizes and will help out a great cause! Spread the word and comment away!