Afghan Schools

On this edition of Peace Talks Radio, two men – Greg Mortenson and Dr. Mohammad Khan Kharoti- who firmly believe that the path to relieving suffering, reducing conflict, and promoting peace in the troubled and chronically war-torn country of Afghanistan is by building schools. Schools for young Afghan boys and especially for young Afghan girls for whom education and basic literacy has been denied.

Greg Mortenson is the author of the best selling books THREE CUPS OF TEA and STONES INTO SCHOOLS. He’s founder of the Pennies for Peace program, and co-founder of the Central Asia Institute. Mortenson has raised the money and resources to build over 130 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan- expanding the horizons and hopes of tens of thousands of young boys and girls.

Also on the program, a less well-known school builder in Afghanistan who built a school in 2001, which flourished into 2008 before it was destroyed by militants. The man behind the school was Dr. Mohammad Khan Kharoti who was born in a nomadic Afghan tribe in the 1940's to poor parents. In 1970, an American family in Iowa helped support him in the U.S. while he got the early education that prepared him for medical school back in Afghanistan. Now he's a U.S. Citizen and doctor of nuclear medicine at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Portland, Oregon where he established Green Village Schools, a non-profit organization, to raise funds for his school building efforts.

Finally, a profile from reporter Mary Anne Meyers of a young Iraqi refugee who studies music in Indiana through the Iraqi Student Project, which invites US colleges and universities to accept qualified students who have lived most of their lives in Iraq, giving these students tuition waivers for undergraduate study.