Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greg Mortenson spoke at Santa Monica High School on Saturday. He appeared in front of a full audience, which included many children who have supported “Pennies For Peace,” an organization that helps children in Afghanistan and Pakistan receive an education.
My school, Point Dume Marine Science Elementary, started collecting pennies for Pennies For Peace after looking at several charitable organizations, but we liked Pennies For Peace best, and so we voted to help this great project. Now we have raised more than 1.8 million pennies, and are willing to raise more. That was enough to build one school and to buy many supplies, scholarships and teachers’ salaries. The money was presented to Mortenson at the event on Saturday by a student in my 5th grade class, along with checks from other schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu area.
Mortenson’s story began when his beloved sister Christa died from an epileptic seizure at the age of 23. She had been an inspiration to Mortenson and, in 1993, in her honor he tried to climb the second tallest mountain in the world, K2 in Pakistan. After 78 days, his group had not reached the summit and one member of the group got sick. Mortenson was exhausted and he found himself separated from his group; lost in the mountains with no food, water or shelter. Then he stumbled into a small and poor village called Korphe. The villagers nursed him back to health, as he was hungry, cold and sick. One day, he noticed that the children of the village were sitting and writing in the mud with sticks, and there was no teacher around. He asked one of the children why there was no teacher educating them. She told him that the village could not afford the daily teacher’s salary of one dollar. He promised the people of Korphe that he would build a school for their children and raise money for supplies.
When he returned to the U.S., he sold his car and everything he had to raise the money for the school, leaving him homeless. He had only raised $2,000 for Korphe.
Mortenson then had the idea of writing to celebrities and asking them for money. The first year he sent 580 letters and spent $128 in postage. Sadly, he only received a single one hundred dollar check from newsman Tom Brokaw.
When he told his mom, Jerene, who was a principal at Westside Elementary School in River Falls, Wis., about the children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, she talked to her students and they started raising money. In a short time, six hundred students had raised $624, one penny at time. It was the birth of Pennies For Peace. Now, with the help of children collecting coins, Mortenson has built more than 78 schools in 16 years.
Mortenson has emphasized building schools for girls. He follows the African saying, “Teaching a boy is teaching an individual, but teaching a girl is teaching a community.” Boys tend to leave the village when educated, while girls tend to stay and teach others.
Mortenson wrote a book about his adventures and the exciting days of building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The book, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time,” has been on The New York Times best-seller list for more than 104 weeks.
Mortenson travels a great deal, and said he misses his family and his family misses him. But his wife, Tara, and children are very active in Pennies For Peace. His son Khyber and his daughter Amira help him raise money for schools. Amira recorded a song called “Three Cups of Tea,” which is downloadable from Amazon.com. All the money from downloads goes toward the Central Asia Institute, the parent organization for Pennies For Peace. The title, “Three Cups of Tea,” comes from the Pakistan tradition: being given one cup equals a stranger, the second cup equals a friend and the third cup means you are family. Greg Mortenson has made the world his family.
Everyone can support Pennies For Peace. Children and pennies have changed the lives of 24,000 children in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
You can learn more about Pennies for Peace at www.penniesforpeace.org; you can learn more about my school’s efforts and see a video on Pennies For Peace at www.pointdume.smmusd.org/, and you help by sending donations to: Pennies For Peace, Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School, 6955 Fernhill Dr., Malibu, CA 90265.
Masha Chernitskaya is a fifth grade student at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School. She would like to be a journalist.