planet earth looks blue

No They Save the World holiday blog series would be complete without the man who I nominate for the Nobel Peace Prize, Greg Mortenson.  Mortenson is the founder of the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit organization that is literally saving humanity’s grace, one school at a time.  Through the coordination efforts of the men and women he has befriended in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as the donors and members of the Central Asia Institute back home in Minnesota, he has built over 78 schools, giving an education to more than 28,000 children.  His students are often young women, knowing that if you educate the girls, you are educating the whole community and invariably raising the standard of living for all.  

What Mortenson has done is unbelievable.  Starting with nothing but determination and a promise he was able to do more than all the NGO’s, than all the millions in foreign and government aid, than our, what is it now? - gazillion billion dollar war on terror, combined to combat the generations long effects of ignorance.  In 1993, on the way back from his climb on up K2, Mortenson, lost and exhausted ran into the small village of Korphe in northern Pakistan,  There the nurmadhar, Haji Ali, welcomed him, offering yak butter tea and a place to rest and recover.  Mortenson made a promise to the children and Korphe’s leader to return to build a school. 

Mortenson began this quest at thirty-five, living out of his car to save what little money he was making.  Through all the adversity that he faced, and continues to face, he never gave up, never decided it wasn’t his responsibility, never said, I am only one man, what can I do?  He turned the dust those little Korphe children were practicing their arithmetic in, into knowledge.  And with that knowledge that he has brought to his 28,000 students, imagine what they will bring to those around them, what they will have to offer the world.  

Mortenson co-authored an account of his journey with David Oliver Relin in the New York Times best-seller, Three Cups of Tea.  

2008-12-24