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Promoting Peace with Books Americans want to hear good news, to have a little
hope,” according to Greg Mortenson, author of Stones into Schools; Promoting Peace with Books,
not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. To date, Mortenson and his staff are responsible for building 131
schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and not one has been
shut down by the Taliban. Guiding all of this is the practice of faith
through action and the belief that all of life is sacred. The building of schools would progress more rapidly if
the Taliban were not in charge. Members of the Taliban were
raised in the time of the war with Russia and were taught to hate and
to get involved in the trafficking of heroin. They are not able to deliver
what people want and need, such as food, roads and education. The goal of the
Taliban is to promote an extreme kind of Islamic law and to keep boys
illiterate. If the boys are not able to read the Koran, they are not trained to know that it is wrong to kill,
especially women and children. So it is Greg’s hope
that when the boys are very young, their mothers, educated in his It takes skill and patience and a lot of time to
convince some mullahs and elders that education, especially of girls, is
truly beneficial to the well-being and future of the people of Afghanistan,
who are poorer and more isolated than Pakistanis. But progress is being made. In 2000,
when the Taliban were still in power, only 800,000 children in
Afghanistan―a nation of 33 million―attended school. Almost
none were girls. Today, although the Taliban again control many areas, some
8.5 million Afghan children are in school, including 2 million girls. “Equally
gratifying,” says Mortenson,” is the response of
the U.S. military. Its leaders have repeatedly turned to me for guidance in
improving relationships with tribal and village leaders.” Also,
Mortenson’s previous best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea, is now required
reading for all special forces soldiers deploying to Afghanistan. Creating a
future for children is Mortenson’s goal. For all
children―boys and girls―”their dreams of progress rest in our
hands; our desire for peace rests in theirs.” On PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal, I heard Greg say recently “There
is no military solution in Afghanistan. That is, you may go in as a warrior
but you must become a diplomat and a peacemaker. The military must meet with
elders to understand the culture and needs of the people. All must listen to
the women who want their babies to live and all their children to be
educated.” There is no doubt that Mortenson’s
work certainly merits the Nobel peace prize. However, he would be the first
to admit that without his hardworking staff in Afghanistan, none of this
progress would be possible. I would like to mention two of these dedicated
men. The first is Safraz Khan, a Pakistani and
former teacher. Safraz was named
most remote-area project director. His job is to coordinate the most
far-reaching ventures at every level―from drinking tea with elders in
each community to hiring masons and carpenters who do the work of building
schools. Prior to this he had several jobs which
brought “not much success.” He enlisted in the army, was wounded twice; the
second wound damaged his right -hand permanently. He then became a high
altitude trader in Afghanistan and learned about residents living in Wakhan Corridor, the remote and difficult northeastern
panhandle of Afghanistan, with peaks of 20,000 feet. The second man, Wakil Karimi, spent the bulk of his life in a crowded refugee
camp in Pakistan. At the age of 7, he and his family were
forced to flee their Afghani home following the Russian invasion. Wakil spent 23 years in the camp. He and his brother
studied in a makeshift classroom for half of each day and worked the rest of
the time to support eight family members. His uneducated mother insisted on
education for him. He learned English, returned to Afghanistan
and got a job as manager of the Peace Guest House in Kabul. There he met Mortenson and learning of his work said, “girls’
education is a must.” When told that Mortenson
specialized in building schools in remote areas, Wakil
went to work and charmed Mortenson into building a
school in Wakil’s home town,
Lalander. It took one year for Wakil
to get his school in a place the Russians had done their best to destroy. Wakil volunteered to act as the project’s unpaid manager.
Eventually Wakil was hired
as Central Asia Institute (CAI)’s Afghanistan director. Wakil
took great risks on behalf of girls’ education. It was
feared that he might be kidnapped or killed. In 2008
he started a women’s computer training center for 1000 students. Wakil also put together a sixty-page NGO application and
spent many hours and days pushing the document through required channels. This NGO registration made life much easier for Greg
and for Safraz. In the meantime
Greg wanted Safraz to take him to the remote area
called Bozai Gumbaz in Wakhan, Afghanistan. The Kirghiz had asked him to build a
school in 1999. Greg wished to learn the way things work in that region. Safraz said “What does matter is
who swears allegiance to whom.” With that in mind, Mortenson
decided to trust Safraz’ judgment, and the school,
in fact, was built in 2009 without Greg’s ever having been to Bozai Gumbaz. There were many
setbacks including muddy roads, landslides, flash flooding
and mechanical breakdowns. The elevation of the site ranges between 20,000
and 40,000 feet. Several vehicles had to be replaced by many yaks to deliver
bags of cement, huge logs and other building
materials to the site on “top of the world.” After visiting some of the schools, Mortenson’s
young daughter, Amira, suggested
that children also need to play. So since the spring
of 2006, playgrounds are now included in most new schools. “In the summer of
2009, a group of elders who had sympathized with the Taliban visited one of
the schools, spotted the playground and broke into
big smiles. For half an hour, they played on the swings, slide
and seesaw.” They never saw the inside of the school but requested that the
schools built in their villages must have playgrounds. Without Mortenson’s many good
friends and colleagues in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he would not be able to
realize his dream of providing schools to the most needy
children in the world. His book is full of the many sacrifices these brave
people make to provide schools, especially for girls. We could learn much
about diplomacy and peace-making from these
self-sacrificing Afghanis. They have accepted Mortenson
as one of their own, and his desire is to spend more time with them. But being the chief fund-raiser forces him to be in the
United States months at a time. He is not a comfortable public speaker and
finds that aspect exhausting. He has a devoted wife and two children, who
share his joy in building schools for the less fortunate. He deserves our
support and the moral support of the U.S. government. The following quotes speak to the importance of Stones into Schools.”
and
Bibliography ► Bill Moyers Journal: interview with Greg
Mortenson, PBS (WHYY-TV), Jan. 15, 2010 ► Trudy Rubin, “A Surge in Schools,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 17, 2010 ► Greg Mortenson,
“Fighting Terrorism with Schools,” Parade
Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 22, 2009 ► Greg Mortenson, Stones into
Schools; Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Penguin Books, 2009.
. ► For more information about the Central
Asia Institute, go to their website at www.ikat.org. Mary
Lou Grady |
