Pens for Peace

Been awhile since I’ve been able to write an update, but now back in the U.S. – despite the strong desire to stay in Afghanistan longer. Looking forward to the return trips! I’m going to commit the next few weeks… maybe longer, because it will really take that long to document some of the great efforts and projects we saw in our short time in Afghanistan. We were only on the ground for 8 whirlwind days, but it’s incredible how many amazing people we met dedicated to making a positive difference in Afghanistan and beyond – and how exportable some of these ideas and projects are to other areas.

First up, I have to begin to tell the story of the Pens for Peace effort. We randomly got involved after some of the logistics got a little challenging… not that we’re a logistics company (at all), but you get a reputation for tenacity and getting it done, and add that “philanthropy” piece – and sometimes it catches up to you. So how did the program start? It started when Chris Corsten (at the time, a Captain in the US Army) first came through the streets of Nangarhar Province in 2005. Kids would line the streets and use a form of sign language to “sign” that they wanted the troops to give them pens and paper – they’d realized that the incoming forces had these “precious commodities” and a heart for the kids (who seriously couldn’t?). Chris happened to mention this to his mom back in his small hometown in Wisconsin. Before he knew it, his mom was shipping boxes of pens for Chris and other members of the military to distribute that she’d managed to pull together with her friends and others she engaged.

That continued for some time, and then a call from Chris to Bill McCready in Reno, NV following Chris’ participation in one of Bill’s online investment trainings took the “program” to the next level. One thing led to another in the conversation, and it turned out that Bill was also a veteran of the U.S. military, having done several tours in Vietnam. Bill, enroute to a Rotary meeting, mentioned “well if there is anything I/we can do…” (aha! Famous words – right?!) – And in that moment, Pens for Peace was born as Bill and the Reno Rotary Club kept a steady supply of pens flowing to Chris in Afghanistan.

Chris soon became known to the local children as “Captain Kalam”… meaning “Captain Pen” in Pashto, and as he would walk into his office or to the villages he would visit, they would hold out their hands and call out to him. Having witnessed the “entourage” that one can get as you walk through villages, I can only imagine the following he had and how each cry of Captain Kalam must’ve brought a smile to his face, as well as tugged at the heart strings.

About 9 months ago the program got a boost by the donation of two massive PALLETS of pens (equates to about 100,000 pens) in Reno, NV. As you can imagine, the financial costs and international shipping logistics of getting these into Afghanistan - and to Nangarhar in particular - were major challenges… not to mention the fact that it is generally always preferable to “buy in country” (or in affected areas) – money helps stimulate the local economy which can help spur additional development. After numerous dead-ends, the challenge was thrown out to us during a late night email exchange with Dave Warner, MD PhD (Mindtel, LLC) that went something like “Kim meet Chris, Ken and Bill… they have pens for kids… trouble getting them here… need in time for spring surge… do what you can… synergize at will.” This was of course following these news stories… As you can see, we had no choice:

ABC News Newsbroadcast (Video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGdk9JwZWzY;
ABC News Story (Text/Photos): http://abcnews.go.com/WN/popup?id=6639064

So we synergized : ) And after a few more dead ends, and visits to the High Sierra Industries Warehouse in Reno where the pens were (great organization as well that employees adults with disabilities… google it), and thanks to a donation from the Woodard Family Foundation in Eugene, OR (you really gotta love the Gamma Phi sorority connections and lifelong friends always willing to support your latest adventures and undertakings)… the pens are making their way into Afghanistan in a steady stream of 5 large APO (Army Post Office) boxes every few days (we figure they'll all be there by early May - there's 675 boxes total). I also managed to fit about 1,500+ pens into a bag as part of my checked luggage; of which we dropped ~700 of them at the La Jolla School for the girls there. The rest of that bag will likely end up in the hands of the kids at the villages by the Kabul River. All told, the pens averaged out to a very reasonable $.02/pen and are high quality that the kids love – which is the core mission. Photos to come soon.

One person, seeing a need, engaging others and making a positive impact. To some, pens may seem a small thing and something we take for granted, but sometimes it’s the smallest gestures that can make the biggest difference.

Jalalabad Adventures Continued... Ultrasound Training & Visit to the Kabul River

So much for the “established program”!… day instead of great spontaneity, starting with an early call to Pete from Dr. Pardes, the Public Health Director for Nangarhar Province, asking that he come back to the Public Hospital by 10AM to demo the 3.5MhZ portable USB ultrasound that we brought along to a group of 20-30 doctors/staff. While there, they actually used the ultrasound to do a demo exam on a child who had been admitted for abdominal pain. Perhaps the greatest take-away though is the hunger and thirst for knowledge and training. That’s the lesson we’ve certainly learned in the past and want to repeat here in Afghanistan… LOCAL sustainability matters, and that boils down in so many ways to training and education.

Following the demo, a crew from the Taj/Fab Lab/Rotary/Synergy Strike Force “surged” to the local Kuchi village down by the Kabul River, where the building of a bridge across the river is in the works… project led and guided by the Jalalabad-San Diego Sister City program out of the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club (google it). It may be an engineering feat, but it’s a bridge of another sort too…

While the “adults” discussed the bridge and the opportunities/issues, the “kids” got to play… and play we did. Having had this project, among others in the area, in the works for a number of years, the kids are real camera hams – once they warm up. No girls down by the river, but a crowd of boys. It took a bit for them to warm up to Adriana (George Mason U. grad student in Stability Ops) and I, but once they did… wow. We were surrounded with requests for pictures with us, without us, and always, always… to show them the pictures. So much fun and we were laughing a lot. One little boy very much wanted me to take his picture with the notepad I was carrying… and he was adamant that the picture be just him (no small feat because the camera draws an instant crowd of posers). Again… a hunger and thirst for knowledge that we would do well to feed. Maybe medical school and career in telemedicine is in his future?

For a 30 second video from the Kabul River go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDxBAlXSKGA