"When it is dark, you can see the stars."--
Persian Proverb
The Central Asia Institute is a non-profit, non-governmental organization. It was started by Greg Mortenson, a one-time child of Christian missionary parents (sent to Tanzania for much of his youth). He later enlisted in the military and became a medic, and later a trauma nurse by profession and a skilled mountain climber. He was trying to climb the infamous "K2" mountain in the Himalayas when disaster struck his party about 800 meters from the summit. He barely made it down the mountain alive and was nursed back to help by Muslim villagers in an isolated mountain town.
Thanks to the generosity of these strangers, Mortenson made a vow: he would return to the village and build the people there a school for their children. The efforts to get funding for the endeavor (and the beginnings of the Central Asia Institute's main efforts to promote female literacy in Pakistan and later Afghanistan) were outlined in a July 2008 column by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times (excerpt below)
"Scrounging the money was a nightmare — his 580 fund-raising letters to prominent people generated one check, from Tom Brokaw — and Mr. Mortenson ended up selling his beloved climbing equipment and car. But when the school was built, he kept going. Now his aid group, the Central Asia Institute, has 74 schools in operation. His focus is educating girls.
"To get a school, villagers must provide the land and the labor to assure a local “buy-in,” and so far the Taliban have not bothered his schools. One anti-American mob rampaged through Baharak, Afghanistan, attacking aid groups — but stopped at the school that local people had just built with Mr. Mortenson. “This is our school,” the mob leaders decided, and they left it intact.
"Mr. Mortenson has had setbacks, including being kidnapped for eight days in Pakistan’s wild Waziristan region. It would be naïve to think that a few dozen schools will turn the tide in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
"Still, he notes that the Taliban recruits the poor and illiterate, and he also argues that when women are educated they are more likely to restrain their sons. Five of his teachers are former Taliban, and he says it was their mothers who persuaded them to leave the Taliban; that is one reason he is passionate about educating girls.
"So I have this fantasy: Suppose that the United States focused less on blowing things up in Pakistan’s tribal areas and more on working through local aid groups to build schools, simultaneously cutting tariffs on Pakistani and Afghan manufactured exports. There would be no immediate payback, but a better-educated and more economically vibrant Pakistan would probably be more resistant to extremism.
“Schools are a much more effective bang for the buck than missiles or chasing some Taliban around the country,” says Mr. Mortenson, who is an Army veteran.
"Each Tomahawk missile that the United States fires in Afghanistan costs at least $500,000. That’s enough for local aid groups to build more than 20 schools, and in the long run those schools probably do more to destroy the Taliban."
Mr Mortgenson's is also the co-author of a bestselling book about his experiences called "Three Cups of Tea" which has been on the best-seller lists in the USA for 90 weeks, despite not having a major publisher initially to promote it. It was mainly by word of mouth. It was through my wife that I first heard of this amazing organization and these efforts to help children, particularly in promoting education for girls in isolated mountain villages around the old Northwest Frontier of Central Asia. His organization also promotes the training of teachers from within the local communities themselves. www.threecupsoftea.com
(above) Here a camera crew visits a school and interviews Farhat, an eighth-level scholarship student, at a village school in the Pakistani part of Kashmir.
One of the mottos of the organization is "educate girls and save the world". It is estimated by the Council on Foreign Relations that this is a key to break the cycle of poverty that afflicts this area, the overwhelming number of whose victims are women.
For more on Greg Mortenson and the work of CAI, here is a clip from an interview from Borders Books television:
lol, trust an American to express an idea that might bring peace as "a more effective bang for the buck" (please excuse my little giggle here). What a sensible man and he is definitely on the right track. The poor and illiterate are often people without hope, so its no wonder that they are likely to be recruited by the Taliban, in the US (or NZ for that matter) these same people often wind up in gangs. Education is the key always and better educated mothers do a better job bringing up kids, especially when they are supported and encouraged by their community.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, I like the idea of the "soft power" of long-term education values above endless and costly warfare. The "bang for the buck" analogy is so common here, Iri Ani , I have to admit didn't notice the irony.
ReplyDeleteThere's a long way to go in this area, judging by the literature I've read on the progress of CAI. However, if these and other government and transnational groups work on poverty in this area the long-term effect will be less terrorism because of what you pointed out in your remarks. Its tough because public schools in Pakistan are non-existent in many areas. (And boys-only Hard-line Muslim Madrassas are no help.) That military leaders in Pakistan and Taliban-like groups seem nearly as weapons-obsessed as the major western powers show how long the wrong paradigm has been in place.
I'm not convinced it would work - because the laws over there prohibit teaching anything but Islam, and the government doesn't hold sway -- someone attempting to set up a school would be just as likely to be hauled in front of a Shari'a court; sentence to be carried out ten minutes later at the muzzle of an AK.
ReplyDeleteStill -- one thing is true: What we're doing doesn't work.
CAI work has appeared to change things for the better in some areas, but the pace of change in that region looks to be slow judging by their own online reports. Still, it was only in the 19th Century that public schools became part of Western society. Seperating hard-core Islamists from their hold on power in Pakistan's outer provinces will take generations, and it will have to be done by a grassroots effort. I feel convinced that I'm ignorant of what exactly would work, but this program seems like a positive approach.
ReplyDeleteWe are just witnessing a start here and, as even some American military brass have testified to, military solutions in themselves won't stop cycles of terrorism.
I do not think we would have the issues with the Taliban if we had helped Afghanistan after the Soviet Union had left. We armed them and left them alone to their own device. It is refreshing to see someone making sure the underprivileged are getting an opportunity to be educated. I wish the Institute and him well in future endeavors
ReplyDeletegood point Doug.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be the crucial flaw in the Afghanistan policy of the George HW Bush's years--after arming those willing to fight the Soviet Army in the 1980's, he and much of the Democratic leadership in Congress left that fractious, tribalistic country to its own devices. A lot of foreign aid to build schools and roads were needed. But the truth was, few in either party were interested in seeing modernization take hold in that country. Maybe if it had had more oil resources, like Iraq, Republicans and Democrats would have been more interested in "nation-building" before 9/11.
ReplyDeleteen el oscuro, todos gatos son pardos...in the dark all cats are black
ReplyDeletei have not heard of this fellow's noble endeavour before. It reminds me of the "Rosewall" schools in the South, Rosenwald fund was started by director of "Cicero Buck" Sears and Roebuck, to match community contribuitions of land and materials and labor in counties where white school boards would do nothing for black children.
yep, if Afganistan had anything more than fruit and nut trees, we might have given a damn, we sure did sell them down the river. I thought it was insane at the time to build these "armies" for our proxy war and then walk off. Look what it has done to ISI, which was the funnel for our tax and arab princes' charity money.
Very interesting. I'd never heard of that. I'll look into the Rosewall schools history. Thanks mestarr.
ReplyDelete