Logo of Big Brother Mouse, publishing books in Laos
 

Attending the book party that you sponsor

Attending an Event

Children at a Big Brother Mouse book party in Laos During our first decade, we encouraged visitors to sponsor a book party in a rural school within about a 90-minute travel radius of Luang Prabang, and then to attend with us.

We enjoyed this, so did visitors, and children in the schools. We've discontinued this program. We realize that this will disappoint many people, so we'd like to explain.

When we started, the average annual income in Laos was about $400 per year. Few people in the countryside had ever seen a book other than a textbook, often not even that. The book parties were a way to introduce children to the fun of reading, and get them excited about their first book. At that time, these schools could not afford to purchase books, and few people even saw a reason to put books into schools.

Laos has changed. Average incomes in 2018 are about five times what they were in 2006. Books are still too scarce, but through the efforts of many people and organizations, including Big Brother Mouse, they've become more common. We believe books will spread widely only if people come to value them enough to pay for them, which will support businesses to do more publishing and, most crucially, distribution. We continue to get books into more remote schools that are far from Luang Prabang, but our focus now is on self-sustaining efforts such as our school, Big Sister Mouse, and increasing the number of outlets where our books are sold.

If you came to this page because you wanted to sponsor and attend a book party, we're sorry to disappoint, but we hope you will understand and appreciate that our goal is to do what's best for our country.