Laos – Big Brother Mouse

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 Goto comments Leave a comment Blog, uncategorized

Imagine a world where there are no books.

Unimaginable, right?

How about if the only thing you had to read was a book about math, or English grammar?

How often do you think you’d read?

Well that is what it’s like in Laos. A country where the only book a child will ever see is in school.

They copy out the text and then take it home to learn.

As you can imagine many would rather not bother.

Speaking to Laos people about the joy of reading was once met with disbelief and laughter.

But now there is Big Brother Mouse, set up in 2003 they publish books.

As storytellers we are always about keeping the oral tradition alive and I have and do uphold the mantle for telling over reading any day… but in this situation, where stories are lost because no one writes them down, where children have no future because they are illiterate – to find a company that is actively keeping the stories alive through creating a publishing culture for a country that has little to no leisure literature is a moving moment.

They are a Laos company, but set up by an American who put all his savings into creating it and making sure that the Laos people run and take ownership of it.

It is the Laos writers who go to the villages and run workshops for children to get them enthusiastic about books. It is the Laos people who write, illustrate, edit and publish these books. This is a fantastic charity, a charity that is all about furthering the opportunities for all the people in Laos.

Community Storytelling

In Laos community is a big thing, everybody does everything together, so encouraging people to read these books to each other is a fantastic way to encourage literacy into a village.

Big Brother Mouse basically do two things, they publish books – if you can raise about £1000 you can sponsor a book to be published, and you will be acknowledged in the front page for this – but more importantly know that because of you a story has been made available to a whole country of people.

Or you can sponsor a Big Brother Mouse party, $300 will pay for the Big Brother group to go to a village, spend the day encouraging the children to get into reading and then give each child a book and encourage them to swap these books.

Big Brother Mouse have also been setting up libraries and training new librarians, they give a village (basically a front room of a willing person) 80 books to set up a library – something they have never had before.

The village will go from never having a book before to having their own library! What a difference this could mean…

To find out more about Big Brother Mouse click here. (I plan to do a fundraiser when I get back for them if you’re interested contact me.)