Help Promote Dolpo Language with Free Childrens' Books

The Dolpo region of Nepal is an isolated mountainous region of the Himalayas. For thousands of years, the Dolpo people have practiced herding, farming, pastoralism, and salt trading. Their culture is a sister culture to their Tibetan neighbors to the Northeast.

As better transportation and facilities have reached Dolpo, health and education have improved, however many aspects of traditional life have been threatened. This includes the Dolpo language, a unique dialect of Tibetan only spoken in this region.

To promote literacy and Dolpo language education we have written a children's book in English and Dolpo language. Our goal is to distribute this book for free to at least 700 Dolpo families with school-aged children. The book is a cute counting book about a family of yaks on a picnic. It showcases different aspects of Himalayan culture that Dolpo children will find familiar and fun.

This year, the Shey region of Dolpo will hold the Shey festival: a once-in-12-year cultural and religious extravaganza, gathering families from all different remote villages of Dolpo into one area for 5 days. During that time, we wish to distribute the books.

We have finished our editing and now its time to print. Each print costs just over $1 USD. Including printing, binding, and shipping up to Dolpo, we expect this to cost around $1000. Each dollar you donate is one more book printed! Any excess to our costs will go towards additional printing and possible future editions in other Himalayan dialects.

We are proud to be working only with local Himalayan companies. Our printers, transporters, and distributers are all local Himalayan people being paid at standard local rates or higher to ensure living wages for all our workers.

Please give a few dollars and help us to bring books to the Dolpo children!