Making Literacy
Fun in Laos!
Traditionally, books have been rare in Laos.
The number of children who go to school is slowly but steadily
improving, yet many children have never read a book outside
of school textbooks. Few Lao people think that reading can be
fun, add to their education, or will provide information to
improve their quality of life.
Indeed, in the past, it couldn't do any of
those things. Very few books were published in Laos and they
never reached the villages where most people lived. Big Brother
Mouse intends to change that. This publishing project was started
by a retired American publisher working with several bright
and dedicated Laotian college students. Their staff now includes
high school students and recent college graduates. Together,
they look at the books children have enjoyed most anywhere in
the world and think about what underlying concepts made those
books successful. Then asked if those concepts could be used
in Laos, with new Lao content and pictures.
Big Brother Mouse first six books came off
press in March and April 2006. Some are just in Lao, others
are in both Lao and English, making them useful not only for
our primary audience - Lao children - but also for people of
any age, who speak either English or Lao and are learning the
other language.
As of June, 2007, they have published 30 books,
and have 18 more that will be ready for press soon!
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Big Brother
Mouse staff reading to children |
Special Projects
In addition to publishing books, Big Brother
Mouse works with other community groups to promote literacy,
and to find innovative ways to get books into the hands of readers.
Book parties: We've held book
parties at the Children's Cultural Center (CCC) and with Action
with Lao Children (ALC). At these book parties, our young authors
and artists talk to kids about their work. We play some games,
then everyone who attends gets a book. We've donated books to
hospital waiting rooms and we hold weekly read-aloud sessions
for Luang Prabang children at our storefront.
Book Swap: For children who
are not used to seeing books outside of school and who don't
have access to libraries, the notion of borrowing books is new.
The book swap at our storefront lets local children borrow books.
They read them, return them, pick out a new book and in the
process learn about the value of taking care of books so that
others can enjoy reading them as well. We are now setting up
similar exchanges in rural Lao villages, where access to books
is even rarer.
Art contests: Big Brother
Mouse encourages not only readers, but also Lao writers and
artists. Working with the CCC, we've held drawing contests to
celebrate creativity and to identify and help develop the talents
of young local artists. The winners of our contests have all
been asked to illustrate books for Big Brother Mouse.
Lao fonts and keyboard: The
most common computer keyboard layout in Laos evolved from Lao
typewriter layouts, which in turn evolved from Thai typewriter
layouts. The two alphabets are quite different, and the layout
that resulted from this is inefficient for Lao computer use.
A variety of incompatible systems have also been created for
storing Lao input on a computer, but none work smoothly with
desktop publishing. We've evolved our own system which makes
it much easier to publish books and other documents. If you
are publishing in Laos, or are simply preparing documents in
Lao and would like a better system, we are happy to share this
system.
If you're in Luang Prabang you are welcome
to join Big Brother Mouse activities with local children, playing
with and reading to kids, which helps them with their English
skills.
North
by North East Travel Services
Tel: +66 (0) 4251 3572
Fax:+66 (0) 4251 3573
e-mail: info@ north-by-north-east.com
Web site: www.north-by-north-east.com