Luang Prabang Librarian Chantha Soulingasack

Here in Laos, people are celebrating International Women’s Day… and from where I’m sitting, they’re celebrating it loudly!

I thought this would be an opportune moment to offer a tip of my hat to three women that I’ve met here who are doing inspired work:

CHANTHA SOULINGASACK is the Librarian of the Luang Prabang Provincial Library. She is responsible for administering the day-to-day operations of the Library and reaching out to donors and partners that can help the Library’s mission. Chantha then steps out from behind her desk and rides in a boat — up and down the Mekong River — to deliver books and school supplies to the children in remote villages.

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CAROL KRESGE founded The Language Project in 1999 and has served as its Director since day one. The Language Project is building community libraries for students to read books, use the internet, practice foreign languages, and to learn about the arts, photography, and music. To give you some sense of her involvement, Carol personally chooses every book to be culturally appropriate and to meet specific, local needs at each individual libraries. At least 85% of the materials that these Libraries offer would otherwise be unavailable in Laos… and that’s due to Carol’s unstinting efforts to help her students get the materials they actually need — unlike most projects that rely on donated unwanted, used books and book overruns.

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Fanny Odermatt: Have You Seen This Woman?

Upon walking back into @My Library for the first time in eight months, one of the first things I noticed was a laminated picture of FANNY ODERMATT on the wall. A psychology student who just arrived for an extended visit from Switzerland, Fanny wanted to find a way to help out… and to break the ice with the Library’s users. So she created a “WANTED” poster for herself, telling people to stop her in the street if they wanted to speak English or French with her — or to help her learn to speak Lao! Since then, she’s been getting plenty of practice and has even started work on assembling a book of photographs shot by @My Library Students. Go Fanny!

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If you want to support the work these women are doing, please take a moment to read about the “Help In Your Own Way” Giveaway!