Ken's Community Reading Room Project

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I first met Ken three years ago, when he was a novice monk at a temple in Luang Prabang. He became like a little brother to me. The kid's got a heart of gold. One time, my friend and I gave him money to buy textbooks. He gave the money to his father to build a toilet because his family had been sharing one with neighboring families and he knew his father needed the money more. He had to share textbooks that whole semester.

He comes from a family who would give you the left shoe off their foot, like most Lao, even if that was their only pair of shoes. One time I took him to visit his village and his family insisted on holding a feast and a baci, a Buddhist/Animist religious ceremony, upon our mid-day arrival to show their thanks for returning their son to them for the day. This poor, darling family killed a chicken and prepared three dishes to celebrate our visit. They probably didn't eat meat for a month after that. But they didn't mind; they were delighted we'd come.

After leaving the temple, Ken proved his ambition time and again by upgrading to better and better jobs, perfecting his English, improving his Japanese. And now, at the age of 19, he's just started a project to help his village, plus seven surrounding villages. All these villages are about an hour from Luang Prabang and are extremely poor and undeveloped.

The project aims to provide books and to create a space to foster a love for reading and learning in these villages, where there is no high school and most kids have to stop learning and work in the fields after Grade 6. The lucky few kids, all boys, get to go to Luang Prabang, the big city where they can become novice monks and continue their education.

Please follow this link to read more about the project: www.communityreadingroom.weebly.com

Ken's community reading room will ensure kids and adults in these villages have a place to go to read and learn. The primary school has donated Ken a room in the school for this purpose. Prior to this project, these villages probably contained a handful of books, all textbooks. Now, a few boxes of books have been donated and people are coming to the room to read. With financial support, the room will possess a whole library of books and learning resources soon.

We take for granted how easy it is to learn; we've got information everywhere. But imagine living somewhere with no books, no movies, no internet.

Ken is also looking for friends to join him every weekend to help teach English, an important tool for young people in Laos today. Often, rural villagers miss out on the benefits of tourist dollars because they never get a chance to learn English from good teachers. Additionally, Ken is looking for a doctor to come with him to teach health care to the villagers so that when they get sick they will be better able to help each other.

The reading room will officially open on September 24th, with full staff every weekend. But people can come to the room anytime to read and learn.

As you'll see from the website, he's cleverly set up a 'tourist excursion' to help finance the project, so tourists visitors can not just buy supplies, but can also come see his village, visit the reading room and spend a day hanging out with and teaching. Tourists visiting Luang Prabang are always looking for authentic ways to visit villages, as well as ways to give back to the local community so this idea will surely take off.

If you'd like to make a donation, for now, please do so using my paypal account and I will ensure 100% of the money gets to him. The link is just below.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=10380064

Or if you prefer, you can send money directly to Ken by Western Union:

Mr Ken Pitsapheng
Ban Mueng Nga, Luang Prabang, Laos
020 7777 5087

Just send me an email saying you've sent money and I'll notify him to expect it. Thank you tremendously.

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Photos

Ken 2 years ago as a novice
when he took me to visit his home

Ken's Father and Uncles
hosting a feast for our visit, despite having nothing

Comments

[Tracey]

Hello
Hey there!! Where are you at the moment? I am traveling to China in Sept / Oct / Nov and wonder if you have plans to visit there at all. Would love to catch up with you. I have some friends who will be traveling to Luang Prabang in December / January and it would be lovely if you could meet up with them and spend some time. David & Carmel have been friends for almost 30 years and are really lovely people, and also their son Tom is just a little bit younger than Lucas. So let me know what your plans are and hopefully you can get to meet them (and they get to meet you!). Lots of hugs and kisses and hope that all is well with you. xxxx Tracey & Ian