Greetings!
Every year we send out an annual report to TIE's supporters and people who have expressed an interest in what we've done and currently do. Old timers already know much of what's contained in our reports. Bear with. You will learn what's been accomplished during 2018 and how we're allocating your dollars.
Who would have thought Trust in Education would still be operating after fifteen years!!! Certainly not me. We are having and have had substantial impact on the lives of thousands. How can we stop?
|
|
Where classes had been held in Farza
|
|
|
Below is a partial recap of accomplishments over the years:
|
|
Two schools were built, the second for girls in the village of Farza. Both schools remain open today. Before the school was built in Farza, classes were taught in small rooms inside homes. When the school opened enrollment went from 250 girls to 375.
TIE didn’t spend one dime on labor building the school in Farza. Our $92,000 provided the materials and land. Afghans living in the surrounding area, provided the labor. Our construction projects have always been partnerships with villages. We provide materials. They provide the labor. I knew that if they built the school, they would protect it and their daughters' right to go to school.
We now support eight computer libraries we opened over the past few years. They are utilized by 700 plus children a day. Utilization increases during the winter months when the children are out of school. This year we added bookcases and books to the libraries. The computers are loaded with educational software, enabling children to learn at their own pace and on their own time.
Wherever possible English and math classes are provided in the libraries. Thanks to Gerard van Steyn, one thousand Khan Academy math videos were translated into Dari that are available online and in our libraries.
Volunteers, led by Rachel Dresdner, Terese Tricamo, and Harris Sahar are currently making videos that will help the children learn English. English is the money language. Whoever understands and can speak English will have more and better employment opportunities.
|
|
Two bridges were built. The one pictured above was constructed over a stream where a young girl, on her way to school, had drowned the year before
|
|
8,000 solar cookers have been distributed to over 3,000 families living in refugee camps thanks to Jack Howell (pictured above). They were taught how to use them. Considering the average size of an Afghan family is eight, that's over 24,000 Afghans who know how to cook using solar and can.
|
|
Through the Denton program ten shipments of clothing, shoes, bedding, school supplies, toys, stuffed animals etc. donated and packed by TIE’s supporters, weighing well over 250,000 pounds, were delivered to families living in refugee camps. The shipments included enough rice to provide 1.5 million meals, and over 25,000 hats, gloves, sweaters, socks and blankets knitted by Americans located throughout the United States.
Our most recent shipment arrived 10 days ago and distribution to families living in the camps will start this week!!!!!
|
|
Suzanne Rogge has made our most effective and verifiable program an unqualified success; Basir and Qudsia, our program directors in Kabul, get in their car and find children working on the streets of Kabul, worthy of sponsorship. They nor their parents want them to be on the streets. But, their families need the income they generate.
We now have a list of sponsors patiently waiting while Basir and Qudsia search for children to sponsor. It takes time to locate children, meet with their parents, explain our program and get their consent. Bear in mind it's also not safe anywhere Basir and Qudsia go outside their homes.
The total cost to liberate a child from the streets is $660 a year. The children receive $50 per month for 12 months and $60 goes toward the costs of administering the program. Fifty dollars a month can completely alter the lives of sponsored children and their families. Below are the most recent program statistics;
|
|
|
|
Our first fundraising slogan for schools was “Change for Change”. I soon realized that as motivated as the children were, most weren’t committed beyond asking others for change.
The slogan was changed to “The buck stops here”, enabling me to tell them about Teddy Roosevelt’s famous words and the need to take personal responsibility for their contributions.
Students were told they had to earn what they contributed.I didn't and don’t care how much they raise. Fundraising is about raising children not money. What has happened with the earn it approach?
The children and their parents are proud of what they accomplish and the total raised tripled. In 2017, students at Burton Valley Elementary earned enough to open another computer library. It is currently utilized by over 60 Afghan children a day, six days a week.
|
|
|
For You Newcomers
Over the years I’ve often been asked, “Why Afghanistan”? A few are forward enough to also say “We have problems here”. The shortest answer is, we can and should do both. One does not preclude the other.
A somewhat longer response is, "here" is not a place. "Here" is where we define it. For some, “here” means only family and close friends. Others include their local community.
My “here” now includes the world, having seen what I’ve seen during my twenty visits to Afghanistan. I understood early on that the difference between “them” and me is where I was born. Children do not chose to be born into poverty, their parents or their circumstances. If you were to visit Afghanistan, your “here” would also include Afghanistan. Of this, I’m certain.
Finally, there is a historical moral imperative for helping Afghan families. In 1979 the United States began financing the mujahedeen (“freedom fighters”) in Pakistan to wage war inside Afghanistan. Very few know that our support began before the Russians invaded. The purpose in providing support to the mujahedeen was, according to Zbigniew Brezezinski, national security advisor to President Carter to draw the Russians in “so Russia could get its Viet Nam”.
Ten years later, in 1989, the Russians were driven out and the Berlin wall came down shortly thereafter. The Soviet Union “disintegrated and dissolved into fifteen separate countries”. Three years later in 1992 we discontinued all humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. “Mission accomplished”, resulting in five million Afghans to flee their country and one million to lose their lives.
The warlords we had armed to bring down the Soviet Union then fought for control of the country. Thirty-nine years later the fighting continues. Will we abandon the Afghan people again and discontinue humanitarian aid? I strongly believe we have an obligation to rebuild what we helped destroy. Therein lies the moral imperative..
A Taliban captive reportedly said “Americans have the watches but we have the time”. None of us have time. We make time for what we decide to do. TiE's volunteers have made the time for fifteen years.
|
|
There is no end in sight. There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel for many of the children who are sponsored. Moreover, every year for the past fifteen years has proven more productive for Trust in Education than the year before. We will not stop, as long as supporters enable us to continue. Don't allow your porch privileges to come to an end. I have enough Ben Gay to last a few more years. Keep your stuff and earn it dollars coming.
Happy Holidays,
Budd
ps For the new folks --- porch privileges allow you to drop what you no longer need off on my porch and I make certain it reaches Afghan families living in the camps in Kabul.
|
|
Trust in Education | www.TrustinEducation.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
