promoting peace one school at a time
Filed Under Events, Stuff, Tips & Tricks | January 12, 2010
If you’re looking for a cause for your child to embrace it would be hard to find one more compelling than Pennies for Peace. The program helps children learn about their capacity as philanthropists through supporting best-selling author Greg Mortenson’s work building schools in the remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. There, $20 from a child’s piggy bank is enough to educate a first grader for an entire year, while $400 from a school’s penny drive can fund a young woman’s maternal health training and forever change her village’s maternal and infant mortality rate.
Mortenson believes that the key to peace in the region lies in books not bombs. And when you consider that for many parents the choice lies between another generation of bare subsistence poverty or education for their sons at an extremist madrassa you can see his point. Fortunately, in many of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s most remote villages there is now another option.
In 1993 American mountaineer and nurse Mortenson stumbled, lost, into the village of Korphe, Pakistan after a failed ascent of K2. The sight of 80 children sitting outside, writing with sticks in the dirt and desperate to learn led him to make a promise he had absolutely no idea how he’d keep: he’d build them a school. Over 16 years later he, and the Central Asia Institute he founded, have established 131 schools in the most isolated regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The schools serve more than 58,000 students, over half of whom are girls. For the people of these villages, nothing is valued higher than the school that “Dr. Greg” helped them build. Mortenson’s approach based on building relationships and empowering communities is succeeding even deep in Taliban territory.
Mortenson will be telling his inspiring and epic story in person at three sold-out Kidsbook events later this week. But if you’re not fortunate enough to have snagged tickets you can still pick up his first book Three Cups of Tea, or the recently released Stones into Schools, which follows the Central Asia Institute’s expansion into Afghanistan.
Everybody we know who has read either book has gone away inspired by Mortenson and the villagers who, in the face of adversity, oppression and poverty, tirelessly pursue their dream of an education for their children. We can’t wait to read Listen to the Wind (K-4), which tells the story of Mortenson’s quest to build his first school, to our six yearold.
Greg Mortenson: www.gregmortenson.com
Pennies for Peace: www.penniesforpeace.org
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Thank you for a fabulous and timely article. I read Mortenson’s first book, Three Cups of Tea, and loved it. Stones into Schools, his second book, was equally compelling, in a different way. Thanks for the heads up about his book for the K-4 set. Your readers might also like to know that there is a ‘young readers’ version of ‘Three Cups of Tea’. Not sure the exact age group it’s for, but I know my 10-year old niece loved it! I am fortunate to have a ticket to his event and can’t wait to hear him!