Yucaipa school pinches pennies for peace
YUCAIPA - Oh, how the written word can rouse inspirational power. When Lia Nelson read, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time," by Greg Mortenson, it inspired her to launch a school project to raise money to help support education for children in Pakistan - one penny at a time.
But first some background. Mortenson builds schools in remote, impoverished regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan through the organization he founded, the Central Asia Institute. It all started in 1993 when Mortenson fell while climbing Pakistan's K2, the world's second highest mountain in the Karakoram range.
After finding his way to a remote village, kindly villagers nursed Mortenson back to health. He promised to repay them by building the village a school. And he has kept building schools.
Mortenson has built over 78 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 28,000 children, including 18,000 girls.
Mortenson advocates girls' education as the top priority to promote economic development, peace and prosperity.
He was quoted as saying: "You can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won't change."
Subsequently, he wrote his best-selling book (#1 New York Times bestseller) telling how it all came about.
"I was inspired to get my class involved in this cause after reading his book," said Nelson, who teaches fourth grade at Meadow Creek Elementary School.
How does collecting pennies come into play? The Pennies For Peace campaign is part of the Central Asia Institute. It's a program for children to raise money to support Mortenson's efforts. Since its inception 1996, over 16 million pennies have been collected from about 700 schools in all 50 states.
And that includes pennies from Meadow Creek. After reading "Three Cups of Tea," she asked the school's teachers if they would like to join in. Twelve classes from Kindergarten through sixth grade did. They collected over 63,000 pennies - $635.41 to be exact. All those pennies were collected in just two months, February and March.
"That will support a year's worth of education for 31 students," Nelson said. "In Pakistan it takes about $20 a year to educate a child. They (Meadow Creek students) learned that children in Pakistan write in the dirt with a sticks because many of them don't have pencils and paper, and they may see a teacher only once a week."
The penny-raising project has left a huge impression on Nelson's students. One youngster told Nelson that he thought his family was poor until he saw the poor children in Pakistan. "He said that now he knows his family is rich," Nelson said.
Before Pennies For Peace was founded, only Pakistani boys were allowed to go to school. But now because of the money raised by Pennies For Peace, girls have that opportunity too, Nelson said.
Nine-year-old Autumn Wyatt, a fourth grader in Nelson's class, learned a few lessons from the project. "They don't have pencils to write with," Autumn said. "I'm happy the (Pakistan) girls and boys can get an education with our pennies. We have a better life than they do. We were happy to help them."
The students' efforts have Nelson beaming with admiration. "The students have wowed me," she said. "They are true examples that anyone, regardless of age, income, or place in the world, can make a difference."
To learn more about Pennies For Peace visit www.penniesforpeace.org/home.html.
For additional information about the Central Asia Institute visit www.ikat.org.
To read parts of "Three Cups of Tea," visit www.threecupsoftea.com.
About this blog
Yucaipa Photos
| Get Yucaipa Now News Have news alerts sent straight to your email, subscribe here: |
Leave a comment