Three Cups of Tea

I've been meaning to post a blog entry about a book I read a while back. Just getting around to it.

I read the inspiring story "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It recounts the unlikely journey that led Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to fight terrorism with books, not bombs, and successfully bring education and hope to remote villages in central Asia."

If you haven't heard the story elsewhere or read the book, I urge you to order it now. It is an amazing story of how one determined and dedicated person can change the world. Greg and his Pakistani staff have accomplished an incredible job assisting people in some of the most challenging geography on earth.

You can find the book in many bookstores and on amazon.com. It has been on the NY Times paperback bestseller list for over a year and a half. If you go to the website for Three Cups of Tea (click on the link) and then click thru to amazon.com, a share of the proceeds goes to fund the Central Asia Institute, the 501(c)3 non-profit organization established to fund Greg's work. Or you can do like I did and make a donation directly.

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.

The Importance of Giving Back

We have been very fortunate in our careers and believe that it is important to share our wealth with those in need throughout the world.

A couple of years ago, we set up a donor advised foundation through the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. We have made numerous donations to organizations in the U.S. and other countries and will continue to do so as part of our charitable planning.

Here are a few of the organizations that we gave grants to in 2007:

Oxfam-America

Caring for Cambodia

Doctors Without Borders

Habitat for Humanity

Emily's List

Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy

Room to Read

World Bicycle Relief