Build a school

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THE most effective way to fight poverty is to educate girls and empower women to become economic assets to their families and communities.

Poverty and lack of opportunity leads to ignorance, abuse and even extremism and terrorism. It is in ALL our interests, male and female, to deal with the global issues relating to poverty at their root cause with the most simple of ideas: education of girls.

I read a book and it was one of the most jaw dropping, shocking and inspirational book I have ever read (and I have read a lot). The information and solutions offered by this book are so simple in many ways…

The starting point is information and education.

To find out more about Half the Sky click on the link below. Scroll down to find out more about my chosen charity the Central Asia Institute

This book led me to read a second book Three Cups of Tea and I have decided I want to actually do something…so rather optimistically I have decided to try and raise $50 000 to build and maintain a school in Afghanistan.

So if you want to DO something too, to make a BIG difference to the world…help me build a school by donating via my firstgiving page. Money will go directly to the Central Asia Institute:

http://www.firstgiving.com/allisongardner

To find out more about the charity watch the videos below:

Interview with Greg Mortenson:

The video  Missing Women profoundly, and heart-breakingly, illustrates the pressures on societies and women to kill their unborn and newborn female babies. It shows the brave men and women who are working hard to fight this problem and indeed how the governments of Asia are also trying to prevent the imbalance of males and females. It ends (it is 52 minutes long) with a stark illustration how the lack of females leads to isolated villages being full of only young men, with no possibilities of a future to have their own families and who are turning to crime instead. This again demonstrates how the work for female rights provides hope for a better world for everyone:

Sadly you can only watch this if you have a UK IP address or a UK VPN account. This maddens me as this video should be freely available as I think it is a good one for older students to watch:

MISSING WOMEN VIDEO

Of course after watching the videos and reading the books it makes you want to do something. Half the Sky has a list of organisation that you can contact. However, as I have said, the one that struck me was the story of Greg Mortenson in his book Three Cups of Tea about his work building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is a must read. I like the fact that he facilitates local people to build and run their own schools, which is the most effective type of aid…helping people to help themselves. It is obvious that educating girls and empowering women is THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY to increase the economic development of poor regions and to fight the tide of extremism which is flooding over these areas.

So I strongly urge that we try and help the wonderful people of these regions who are desperate for help. Get your school to raise money for PENNIES for PEACE and donate money, even a pound, a dollar or a euro to the charity organisation Central Asia Institute.

Don’t forget to donate via my firstgiving charity page (money goes directly to the Central Asia Institute) and help me raise money to build a school.

Greg Mortenson

Patika Girls High School

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