Helping Lao Children to Read

Just received an email newsletter from Big Brother Mouse. No, it isn't a relative of Disney's Mickey or Minnie.

Big Brother Mouse is an organization based in Luang Prabang, Laos that publishes children's books in Lao. Something that we all take for granted is not the case in Laos. There are very few children's books written or translated into Lao. And it is not as simple as translating a children's book into Lao from English, French, etc. The cultural differences are so huge that the translation would be meaningless to the Lao child.

Organizations like the U.S. State Department pride themselves over building and stocking libraries in countries like Laos, but no one ever goes there to read the books because they are written in English. A few NGOs such as Room to Read are making modest inroads into Laos and neighboring countries to improve the literacy of school children.

We visited the office of Big Brother Mouse in Luang Prabang when we were in Laos last November. An American helped create the company and helps to operate it today, but in Laos it must be owned and managed by Lao personnel. Remember, this is still a communist country with all the associated bureaucratic laws and restrictions.

We made a donation to conduct a book party in a village school where they gave each child a book of their own. In most cases, it is the first book a child or anyone in their family has ever owned.

Photos from the book party we sponsored on Saturday, January 5, 2008 in the village of Ban Huaiphai. More than 195 books were handed out.

This is an enormously large scale problem - there are tens of thousands of villages throughout Laos, many of them very difficult to access.

If you are interested to learn more and to make a donation (sorry, it may not be tax deductible because this is a for-profit company, not a NGO), click on the following link and check out their website at BigBrotherMouse.