Laos is gorgeous, picturesque, and on the UN Human Development Index it ranks 133 out of 177 nations. It’s a country in which 41% of the population is under the age of fourteen and where per capita income is low.  Books are hard to come by for Laos children and says American Carol Kresge, “Books matter.”

Living in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage site,  Carol ensures that not only are books available for the residents of that city– there is also a library that goes far beyond the norm.  @My Library has 1200 books, with 1000 of those checked out every month, and  classes in English and Laos typing, computer skills, art, photography and calligraphy. Five different languages are taught, and there is a music room with guitars, keyboards, synthesizers and a recording studio for Laos and Hmong music. 

There’s a gallery showing the work of the photography students–if a photograph is purchased, 50 percent of the proceeds go to the photographer and the other half to the library, which is a non-profit institution. There is no charge to check out books, and the classes are free.

@MyLibrary is open six days a week, with 150 users a day, most of them between the ages of 14 and 27. It’s run by Carol and five Laos staff members, with the help of an innovative program called Stay Another Day. This enlists the assistance of travelers, enticing them to serve as volunteer language teachers or sharing their skills with other classes.

The library is a place to find books in the Hmong language, as well as in English and Laos. The most popular book?  It’s Malaysian author Billi Lim’s Dare to Fail. And in a culture where perfectionism can hamper effort, Carol Kresge is delighted that in her library, this is a title that is rarely on the shelf.

For my holiday gift this year, I received one of my favorite presents– a new country to love! It only took a few days to become thoroughly enchanted by southern Laos, which may be the most beautiful corner of the world that I’ve seen so far, with some of the kindest people to boot.

I was there before New Year’s, so schools had not yet closed for the holiday break, and I often passed crowds of meticulous, uniformed children on their way home at the end of the day, or playing in the schoolyards. When I saw them, I remembered the video that my friend Jessica Cotterill posted on her blog recently, showing a Laos school that she and her husband Colin had visited with books that they presented to the students.

Books for Laos is a labor of love that the Cotterills have been involved in for years, distributing books written in the Laos language to schoolchildren in conjunction with Big Brother Mouse, whose image adorns this post. Started by Sasha Alyson, formerly a U.S. publisher and now a resident of Luang Prabang, Laos, Big Brother Mouse writes, illustrates, publishes and distributes books written in the Laos language to children in Laos schools, while bestselling mystery author Colin Cotterill provides scholarship funds to hilltribe children, 75% of whom have no access to schools, so that they may eventually become teachers and return to teach others in their home areas.

Both of these organizations depend upon donations to survive and to carry on the work they have begun. For the cost of a daily latte, a child can learn to read, and can be the joyful recipient of the first book they have ever owned.

Please go to these websites, and to Jessica’s blog–you’ll be glad you did.

Sometimes the simplest remark can be the most transforming. “Perhaps, sir, you will come back with books,” a Nepalese headmaster said to John Wood, a vacationing Microsoft employee, as they stood in a school library that had twenty books that “were all backpacker cast-offs.” Haunted by the thought of children who might never know the joy of reading, Wood returned home and spent a year gathering children’s books. He went back to the headmaster with 3,000 volumes and a new direction for his life. John Wood decided that bringing books to children who have none was his vocation and Room to Read was born, as he tells readers in Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.

Wood put together an organization with staff who share his dream and his passion, aided by a fundraising network of more than 3,000 people. The core programs of Room to Read are the Reading Room which has built 5,600 libraries,  Local Language Publishing which publishes and distributes books written both in English and the local language, the School Room which works with local communities to build schools with 444 in use, the Room to Grow Girls’ Scholarship that enables 4,000 girls to complete their secondary education, and the Computer and Language Room which builds computer and language labs.

Found in India, Sri Lanka, Zambia, South Africa, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, Room to Read is vitalized by donations and volunteers, who have discovered how they can help by going to www.roomtoread.org. All share a common goal—to have built 10,000 libraries by 2010.

Scheduled half-day visits to a Room to Read site are welcome with advance arrangement.

One man, one dream, 3,000 books– one optimistic remark changed a life and consequently thousands of lives are being changed through the power of reading and the joy of literacy, all over the world.