If you could do something to help an Afghan girl learn to read, would you? If you understood that Afghan literacy is a key to long term peace and prosperity, would that make a difference in whether you gave a little girl a pencil? While American children want the latest X-Box or the games that go with it, in many parts of the world, children are ecstatic to get a common #2 lead pencil. They're happy with a piece of hard candy, but as convoys pass or Troops approach, one of the most common signs is an index finger to the palm of the hand, asking for a pencil.
This was the matter of discussion between myself and a teammate more than once. As the least educated on the team, I was interested on teammates thoughts on the rocks (one guy was a specialist in the things and he hated when I called crushed stone, "gravel," so I did it often), or in this case a PhD candidate's observations on Afghan kids' desire for self-expression.
He noted that kids everywhere just want to be able to express themselves. It was certainly better than my niece's use of the walls of the house as her personal canvas to her permanent markers at a young age. I had a ready source for pencils and would get 500 pack boxes of the prize of Afghan kids, every few mail runs. The phenomenon is discussed in a "Time Machine" article from 2009.
The fact is that something as simple as school supplies can change the future of Afghanistan, as well as improve relations between Afghans and American Troops. Those old unused school supplies you have, the old backpacks in your closets, can make a positive difference in the lives of kids that have toys no more expensive than the rocks they find in the desert. And a Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force teamed up with his Professor wife to start not just a program to help you help Afghan kids, but got Florida College Kids involved in the effort. I can't even imagine a downside to this program.
Both Rex and Prof Temple seem to be very unassuming people. Though they have managed to get the program fully involved at the University of South Florida, she was very understanding when we were discussing Non-Profits, and how Non-Profits ask for publicizing of their efforts. In fact, Prof Temple did not even bring up this program to me. I found it in my research of another effort of hers, to help Wounded Warriors.
My normal checks before I do such things include looking at the financial data, but this program works from within another. Their expenses are limited to the cost of shipping from Florida to Afghanistan. All the items are donated: pencils, pens, notebooks, and backpacks. There is a way to donate money to pay the cost of shipping, but that is the only financial cost to the program.
But aside from knowing that your pencils and notebooks will bring greater happiness to an Afghan child, than the most high tech gadget would to an American kid, how does this help with peace and prosperity?
Afghanistan is one of the most illiterate places on earth. Illiteracy makes training Afghan Soldiers more difficult. It takes longer as traditional means of teaching basic subjects like Human Rights can't be spelled out. It means that an Afghan must rely on word of mouth for the news, and more often than not a local mullah interprets it as he sees fit. A typical Afghan cannot pick up a newspaper and decide if the words written are slanted, propaganda, or the facts.
One of the most important developments in the last ten years in Afghanistan is that millions of kids, including girls, now have an opportunity to learn to read.
And when an American Soldier hands these kids the tools to learn, the kids are ecstatic. Afghan kids will brave the cold, under a tree, to have the chance to learn. When the kids are happy, their parents are happy. When their parents are happy, when they know that American Soldiers care, they are more likely to tell the good guys where the bad guys are, where the IED's are, where the Taliban are, that would kill them for daring to learn to read, are hiding.
And when an American Soldier can bring a smile to the face of an Afghan kid, it warms his heart. It makes the intolerable desert and the climbs up the mountain in 90lbs of gear, in 10 degree or 100 degree temperatures, just a little more tolerable. It reminds him of home, and the kids in his own life. And when that kid is old, he too will remember the American Soldier, who gave him his first pencil, or a backpack. And he'll know that the Taliban stories of Americans eating Afghan kids are just lies.
Take a look at the program. If you are involved in a College Program, consider how you could set up a sister program. If you have school supplies laying around, consider how you could provide a smile to an Afghan child. If you're at a loss for how you could help in other ways, consider if you have the $12.95 available to fund one box to a school. And if you have nothing else you can do, consider telling Professor Liisa Temple and SMSgt Rex Temple thanks for what they are doing.
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