-----20-----
GREG MORTENSON REFLECTS
ON A 20-YEAR JOURNEY
by Katie Smith
As CAI celebrates 20 years of educating women and children in Central Asia , we are celebrating more than the hundreds of schools established in some of the most far-flung reaches of Pakistan , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan . We are celebrating notable progress in helping women find their voices , in helping communities in these regions connect , and in providing a better understanding of the many cultures , traditions , and communities of these remote areas .
CAI co-founder , Greg Mortenson , took time to reflect on the changes , challenges , and lessons learned during the past 20 years . Many aspects of CAI have evolved since the first CAI-supported school was built in Pakistan 20 years ago . Greg and CAI have made strides to decrease the number of infant deaths and child brides , as well as to increase the number of girls who stay in school past fifth grade . There remains a long journey to provide economic and social equality for women and girls in this volatile region of the world .
A LONG JOURNEY
In the 1990s , when Greg spent time with villagers in the remote regions of Pakistan , the infant mortality rate was heartbreakingly high , young girls were married off as preteens , and there was little knowledge about the importance of nutrition or hygiene . He was inspired by the resiliency of these isolated , mountain people , and he wanted to help .
“ I began to listen to the women as I learned Balti ,” says Greg . “ I asked the women what they really wanted . They told me they wanted two things : they didn ’ t want their babies to die and they wanted their children to go to school .”
Each village CAI works with has a strong desire for literacy . Communities were desperate for education even though they had no real supplies or teachers . They didn ’ t yet understand education , but they knew they wanted to read and write .
“ Education is not just money and jobs ; it ’ s more than that ,” explains Greg . “ It ’ s connectivity with the world around them . Literacy is a form of communication , it ’ s a quest for knowledge , and its universal .”
“ It ’ s even a part of their faith ,” he continues . “ The first word of the revelation in the Qur ’ an is iqra . It means read and seek knowledge . Education is connecting , it ’ s communicating , and it also has a faith element .”
THE FIRST SCHOOLS
The first few schools were rife with the mistakes of a Westerner fumbling to understand a different culture . Many of the lessons learned in the first few schools influenced the methodology CAI still uses to work with villages , build schools , and create new programs .
One of the most influential lessons Greg learned is how to earn buy-in and ownership from the community for each school . “ When I started I was quite naïve . I thought you just go , and you raise money , and you come back , and you get a school built , and you help the teachers ,” Greg smiles as he remembers his naivety .
“ You can ’ t just plunk a school down . I learned to let the villages get involved , and they taught me the lesson of sweat equity . You aren ’ t going to get a school in the village unless the village contributes land and resources and manual labor . CAI does that now with any program they start . There always has to be community input no matter if it ’ s a building or a teacher training program or anything else .”
Over the past 20 years Greg learned to adjust expectations based on the needs of the community . After CAI built the first schools , the expectation was for the girls to move through each grade and earn their degrees .
It quickly became apparent that , before CAI could focus on degrees , they needed to focus on basic literacy and keeping the girls in school past the fifth grade . The teachers introduced basic health , hygiene , and nutrition which decreased common illnesses that had kept students out of the classroom .
CAI has learned to adjust to the needs of the communities , increasing programing as education in each country evolves and standardizes . When they installed libraries in the schools , the children loved it . The shelves were continually empty as children brought them home to read to their whole families next to the hearth .
When the organization learned girls went home from school and taught their mothers how to read and write , CAI created women ’ s literacy programs for the older women in the villages . Now these programs , often conducted in one woman ’ s home for several months , teach hygiene , nutrition , politics , and even managing money and economics .
“ There is a huge difference between the first schools and now ,” says Greg . “ When we started out , it was just reading , writing and some math , some English or Urdu . Now , by the time the girls are 18 or 19 in Afghanistan , they are taking 14 classes including economics , geography , history ,
2 | JOURNEY OF HOPE CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE