This is exciting not only because then Gunnar can rest after walking 1,000-miles and I can get back home to my family...but I can also finally reunite with my beloved Andrea, the woman who does my hair. After six weeks on the road, my roots are already so overdue for a foil, it's scary.
What is most exciting, however, is if we can inspire enough people to donate to ASM4P in these final weeks, we will be able to get our War Kids Relief programs off the ground...which is the point of everything.
***
Yesterday, Gunnar, the media darling, was interviewed at a gas sta
tion outside Perry, Kansas when the Kansas City, Missouri Fox-4 crew caught up with him to get the story for their nightly news (check out http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-war-vet-walking-080909,0,5864603.story). As Gunnar, the reporter and the cameraman were all outside in the stiffling mid-day heat, I was still working away inside the RV trying to drum up even more press.So far our crew has done a great job getting publicity! Just a couple days ago, the Topeka Capital-Journal ran a nice story about ASM4P
(Topeka Capital-Journal, August 2009), and in the past five weeks we have racked up lots of news articles and TV clips, we have gained over 2,300 fans on our Facebook page and our Twitter page is filled with tweets and re-tweets. (Actually, I'm not even really sure what that means, but I just know it's good.)
Overall, people really love what ASM4P is about, and there seems to be no question that Gunnar and I are passionate about helping war kids. There is also no question about the sacrifices we are willing to make...no question that we have an awesome website and video...and no question that we are surrounded by an incredibly talented team of people helping make all this happen.
And I think by now there is also no question that Gunnar and I are two major goofballs...but there does seem to be one big question that is still on people's minds:
What exactly are you guys raising this money for?
It seems that somewhere in all the hype and excitement of ASM4P, the actual programs have gotten a little overshadowed. Of course, everyone knows that we are raising money to help children affected by war, but people wonder how will we help them, and what exactly do we need the money for? Even though it's all outlined on the website I realize people don't have time to read through a lot of copy, so I've decided to dedicate this blog to filling in the details.
Ready? Here we go...
Okay, so you know how it seems every time you read the news about Iraq there is yet another depressing story about how insurgent groups keep blowing stuff up...a mosque, a marketplace, a police checkpoint...and you just wonder when all this craziness will ever end? And then you read about how we are trying to get our troops home, but as long as these insurgencies are thriving, the troops are still needed to provide the security necessary to prevent everything from backsliding. And if everything backslides, then we'll never be able to stop worrying about that region...whether the troops ever come home or not.
The thing is, in order for these insurgencies to thrive they need to continue to increase their ranks by finding new recruits. Most people know that planting roadside bombs isn't nice, so the bad guys like to go after the ones easiest to brainwash and control...and the easiest prey are the kids. Not just any kids though, they go after kids who are disengaged, depressed and vulnerable. In the same way the Bloods, the Crypts and every other self-respecting gangs in the U.S. build their forces, children are manipulated into joining these insurgencies. Because there is so much chaos going on in Iraq, parents don't always have the means to keep these kids out of harms way, and so it's easy-pickins for the bad guys.
(If you want to read an amazing book on this subject, pick up a copy of One Day the Soldier's Came; Voices of Children in War by Charles London. He's a friend of mine who spent years researching the effects of war on children. It's a fabulous read.)
So, getting back to my story...there is this Iraqi nonprofit called Bustan, run by my friend Ayoub Allain, that has spent the last six years creating programs to prevent Iraqi kids from getting caught up in the cycles of violence. So far they have made great progress helping kids from different backgrounds all across Iraq get to know one another, learn to respect one another and actually become friends with one another. This is the ultimate violence prevention, because nobody ever wants to go to war with a friend.
But it's tough for one little organization to do so much...especially when they are dealing with kids who have been traumatized by six years of war. Spending a majority of their lives witnessing explosions, killings and kidnappings--or, worse yet, being one of the children involved in the bombings and killings--leads to plenty of post traumatic stress. So, we at War Kids Relief decided that if we could raise enough money, we wanted to help Bustan establish a youth center where these traumatized kids can go to; a place where they can get the professional counselling they need, and to learn new job skills so they can make money without being tempted to join insurgencies looking to exploit cheap labor.
So if we can prevent the insurgents from growing their ranks, then eventually the U.S. troops won't have anyone left to battle against, so they can finally come home, and the next thing you know-- world peace! (Don't you just love it when it all comes together?)
ASM4P's fundraising goal is to be able to open a Youth Rehabilitation and Job Skills Center for sixty children (the first year) in Mosul, Iraq. The plans are all drawn up and the budget is in place, however, we believe that for this program to be sustainable, Bustan needs to have some skin in the game, so we agreed to raise $179,000 on our end and Ayoub will find matching funds on his end.
Broken down into what each donor's dollars will do on a per child/per month basis:
- for $15 you can help us maintain the rehabilitation center which will function as a safety harbor for children, to spend time away from destruction and war
- for $45 you can do all of the above AND help the children transported there safely
- for $60 you can do all of the above AND offer these children psychosocial support to help them cope with war trauma
- for $85 you can do either one of two things:
- all of the above AND have one child finish an entire curriculum module, including learning practical job skills and getting professionalism training -OR- assist in the building process of the rehabilitation center
- for $165 you have saved one child from forced participation in terrorism
***
Now, moving on to Afghanistan...you know how you read in the news that more and more American troops are being deployed there? And even though we thought the U.S. invasion after September 11, 2001 got rid of the Taliban, they somehow still continue to thrive and terrorize and behead people and intimidate people from voting and generally wreak havoc on the whole country? And sometimes you just want to shake your head and think man is this hopeless or what? Well, there is no doubt that the world has a collossal mess on our hands and it's going to continue affecting the safety of the all of us until we get this under control...whether we are forced to strip all the way down to our undies in the airport security lines or not.
Unfortunately, no matter how many troops we send there to deal with this, until the Afghani people can strengthen their own communities (through education and economics) they will never be strong enough to resist the Taliban's force. Like bullies everywhere, the Taliban preys upon the most vulnerable...and after nearly 30 years of war, the Afghans are about as exhausted and vulnerable as they come.
(BTW-If you want to see a great movie that shows how the Taliban took root in Afghanistan, watch "Charlie Wilson's War" with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. The sad-but-true story about what happens when the U.S. relies too much on military solutions without providing proper infrastructure. Our bad.)
Anyone who has ever read Three Cups of Tea (is there anyone out there who hasn't?) knows that schools in Afghanistan are desperately needed, but the problem is that the Afghan economy stinks so bad that after the kids graduate they still can't find any jobs to feed their families....so they remain vulnerable to the Taliban who is right there waiting to exploit them. Ninety percent of the world's heroin comes from the poppy fields of Afghanistan because the Taliban pays the poor farmers to grow it, and then uses the revenues to fund their evil deeds. The icing on an already messed up cake is that since these communities can't protect themselves, many of the schools that were built for the children have been taken over by Taliban to use as their headquarters! The Afghan people desperately need to strengthen their communities economically from the inside so they don't have to sell out to the bad guys.
Now, by this point, you may be asking yourself how the hell does Dina know this? Well, let me tell you about my friend Santwana...
Santwana Dasgupta, a fellow Minnesotan by way of India, is the executive director of Partnership for the Education of Children in Afghanistan (P.E.C.A.), the nonprofit org that we are working with to establish a vocational training program in Khost, Afghanistan, using donations from ASM4P.
P.E.C.A. has not only been building schools for the past ten years, but they have been getting whole villages on their feet as well. During the process of their work, they recently discovered that economic strength within the Afghan communities is the most effective prevention of Taliban interference. (It's that 'bully theory' again.) Working with the Afghan ministries of education, agriculture and rural development, they have done extensive research on exactly what kinds of small businesses/industries would be viable. From there they have designed after-school vocational programs that will train students to become the entrepreneurs needed to get these industries off the ground. The goal is that by the time the students graduate, they will hit the ground running, be able to support themselves and also co-invest a percentage of income back to the school to sustain it for the long run.
Not only is Santwana the brilliant leader of all this, but she is a woman so dedicated to the cause that she actually convinced her husband to agree to let her move to Kabul, Afghanistan by herself for two years just to get this program going!
Note to my husband, Brad: Honey, maybe you and Santwana's husband should go hang out some time. After a few hours with him, the thought of being talked into 10 weeks of single parenthood so your wife can go fund raise in an RV might not seem so crazy anymore.
Getting back to my story...War Kids Relief is partnering with P.E.C.A. to help fund the beginning of this vocational program in order to get 150 male and female students through one year of training. In an arrangement similar to the Iraqi Youth Center, War Kids Relief will fund $130,000 of this project with P.E.C.A. matching funds as well.
The breakdown of donations is as follows:
- for $35 you can help to maintain our vocational center
- for $65 you can help one student finish a vocational skills class
- for $100 you have helped one student to open a small business which will benefit the student him/herself, their family and the local community
So those are the two biggest WKR projects Gunnar is walking 1,000 miles to support. The other projects we are creating will help American kids (like all these Topeka YMCA kids in these photos) continue to communicate with a
nd learn from their peers in Iraq and Afghanistan, so they won't grow up in fear of the outside world, and instead, realize that we can all be friends.I hope that sharing the details of our programs in this blog will help people become even more compelled to support our ASM4P fundraising efforts. I know that this isn't the year people want to be asked to give money, but we really are all linked together on this planet, and the world needs us.
The kids holding this car wash are doing their part...just like every kid who posted a project on our ASM4P site (www.warkidsrelief.org/march/share). Even if it's as little as s
ponsoring Gunnar one penny/mile, I believe that if we stick together we can do anything.So if you are inspired by what you've just read, please donate what you can, and forward this blog to help me spread the word.
We've got 3o days left to make the magic happen!
Thanks to you all...
Love,
Dina
Will you help us help the kids?
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