Three Cups of Tea

In my post about the garage sale I mentioned that the kids donated their money to Pennies for Peace.  I thought I should share with you all a little more about this organization and why we sent their money there. 

It all began when I started reading Three cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.  The book tells about Greg Mortenson's life fromthe time as mountain climber he made a failed attempt at K2 and found himself in a small village in the Karakoram mountains.  He is so touched by the people that he makes them a promise that he will return and build them a school.  That one promise leads to the building of not just the one school but many more schools and not just in Pakistan but also Afghanistan.  I found the book very moving and inspiring.  The book makes a powerful argument for education as not only a means of helping this impoverished area but also a way to help combat terrorism.  I personally have been struggling with my opposition to the war and still wanting to do something to prevent terrorism.  I found the idea of helping to bring education to this area, where before the only choice for education was to attend the Taliban run madrassa's  very powerful and inspiring.  For those unfamiliar with a madrassa, it is a school only open to boys that is typically run my extremist Muslum clerics many of whom do not posses an education themselves.  Many of these schools have become jihadist military training grounds and it has been extimated that more than eighty thousand of these young madrassa students have become Taliban recruits.  I encourage everyone to read this book and learn more about this area of the world.

Pennies for Peace is an organization designed for schoolchildren.  It costs only a penny to provide a child in Afghanistan or Pakistan with a pencil and a 100 pennies will pay a teachers salary for a day.  To date schoolchildren have collected more than eight million pennies.  If you are an adult and want to help support efforts to provide education in Afghanistan and Pakistan then you can visit the Central Asia Institute's website for more information.