Stones Into School (34 page)

Kunar: A province in eastern Afghanistan

kwalai
: A white skullcap used for prayer by Muslims

Lalander: A village south of Kabul where the CAI's first school in Afghanistan was built

LOC: The acronym for “Line of Control,” the disputed border between India and Pakistan

Logar: A province southeast of Kabul, Afghanistan

lunghai
: A type of wrap-around turban worn by Pashtun tribal people

madrassa: An Arabic word meaning “educational institution”

maktab
: Dari and Pashto word meaning “school” used in Afghanistan

Mardhan Shar: The capital of Wardak Province, Afghanistan

Mazar-i-Sharif: A city in northern Afghanistan

Mi-17 and Mi-24: Soviet military helicopters used in Afghanistan

muezzin: A chanter in a mosque who intones the call to prayer

muhajir
: The term for “refugee” in Pakistan and Afghanistan

mujahadeen: An Arabic word meaning “struggler” and the name given to the Afghan freedom fighters

mullah: A community Islamic leader

Muslim: A person who practices Islam

Muzaffarabad: The capital of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

naan: A type of thick bread commonly eaten in Afghanistan

nanwatey
: The Pashtun code affording the right of refuge and protection to all guests

Naray: A district in northern Kunar Province, Afghanistan

Neelum Valley: The epicenter of the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

nemek choi
: The Wakhi word for salt tea mixed with goat's milk and yak butter

NGO: The international term for “nongovernmental organization”

night letter: A threatening letter delivered under cover of darkness by the Taliban

Northwest Frontier Province: A tribal area in northwestern Pakistan; one of Pakistan's five provincial areas

Nuristan: A province in eastern Afghanistan

nurmadhar
: An Urdu term meaning “village chief”

Operation Enduring Freedom: The official U.S. military designation for the war in Afghanistan started in 2001

opium bride
: A daughter sold into slavery to pay for an opium habit

pakhol
: A Dari and Pashtun term for the woolen hat often worn by mujahadeen

Pamirs: A mountain range in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and China known as the Roof of the World

Panjshir: A province and valley in northern Afghanistan

Pashto: The language spoken by Pashtun tribal peoples, who live along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border

Peshawar: A city in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border

pir
: A Wakhi/Tajik term meaning “elder”

Pul-e-Khumri: A town in northern Afghanistan

purdah: An Urdu and Hindi term meaning “curtain,” which refers to the cultural tradition of women covering themselves in public

Qayamat
: An Urdu term meaning “apocalypse”

rupee: The unit of money used in Pakistan, India, and other countries

Salang: A strategic pass and tunnel north of Kabul

Sarhad: A village at the end of the only road through the Wakhan Corridor

shaheed
: An Arabic word meaning “martyr”

shalwar kamiz
: Loose, pajama-like pants and top worn in Pakistan and Afghanistan

Shia: The second-largest Muslim denomination worldwide, at 17 percent

shura
: A word used in Afghanistan meaning “an elder”

SOCOM: The acronym for the U.S. Special Operations Command

Sunni: The main sect of Islam, representing 82 percent of Muslims worldwide

Swat Valley: An area in northern Pakistan ruled by the Taliban for two years until 2009

Tajikistan: A mountainous country north of Afghanistan

tanzeem
: A word used in Afghanistan and Pakistan meaning “village committee”

Uighur: An Islamic people who live in far western China

ulema
: An Arabic term for Islamic religious leaders

Urdu: The national language of Pakistan

Uruzgan: A province in southwestern Afghanistan

USAID: The acronym for the United States Agency for International Development

Waalaikum-Salaam
: An Arabic phrase meaning “May peace be with you also”

Wakhan Corridor: A 120-mile-long corridor in northeastern Afghanistan

Wakhi: A Persian tribal people who live in the central Wakhan and northern Pakistan

Waziristan: A region of western Pakistan located in the Northwest Frontier Province

Xinjiang: A province in far western China with a significant proportion of Uighur ethnic Muslims

Yardar: A hamlet near the town of Baharak in Badakshan Province, Afghanistan

zalzala
: The Urdu term for “earthquake”

Baharak school girls, Badakshan Province, Afghanistan

Investing in Girls' Education Yields Huge Returns

Income Growth

Girls' education leads to increased income for the girls themselves and for nations as a whole. Increasing the share of women with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per-capita income growth by 0.3 percent. That's significant, since per-capita income gains in developing countries seldom exceed 3 percent a year.1

Educating girls also boosts farming productivity. Educated farmers are more efficient and their farms are more productive, which leads to increased crop yields and declines in malnutrition.2

Maternal and Children's Health

Educated women have smaller, healthier, and better-educated families.

The better educated the women in a society, the lower the fertility rate. A 2000 study in Brazil found that literate women had an average of 2.5 children while illiterate women had an average of six children.3

The better educated the women, the lower the infant mortality rate. “The mother's education is often the single most important influence on children's survival. . . . Educated mothers learn how to keep their children healthy and how to use health services, improve nutrition and sanitation, and take advantage of their own increased earning capability. Girls who stay in school also marry later, when they are better able to bear and care for children.”5

By increasing health-care knowledge and reducing the number of pregnancies, female education significantly reduces the risk of maternal mortality.4

Educated women are more likely to insist on education for their own children, especially their daughters. Their children study as much as two hours more each day than children of illiterate mothers and stay in school longer.5

Women's Empowerment

Educated girls and women are more likely to stand up for themselves and resist violence: “In poor areas where women are isolated within their communities, have little education and cannot earn much, girls are often regarded as an economic burden and women and girls sometimes suffer deliberate neglect or outright harm.”5

Educated women channel more of their resources to the health and education of their children than men do.5

Educated women are more likely to participate in political discussions, meetings, and decision making.5

Studies show that education promotes more representative, effective government. As women are educated and approach parity with men, research shows that “governments and other institutions function better and with less corruption.”5

Girls who become literate tend to teach their mothers how to read and write, much more than do males.6

When vegetables or meat wrapped in newspapers are brought home from the bazaar, women often ask their literate daughters to read the news to them and can understand more about the dynamic world around them.6

Key Ingredients in Successfully Building Girls' Schools

The Council on Foreign Relations' What Works in Girls' Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World spells out several critical elements for successful girls' schools, many of which Central Asia Institute has incorporated:7

Build schools close to girls' homes. School-age children are 10 percent to 20 percent more likely to attend school if they live in a village with a primary school. Proximity also increases parental involvement.

Insist on community involvement. Community schools tend to meet culture norms and use local language. Community-based and community-supported schools generally have higher enrollment and quality and lower dropout rates.

Build “girl-friendly” schools. Girls' schools must have private latrines and boundary walls. In some cases, it's most appropriate to build separate schools for girls.

Provide female teachers. Recruit locally. Even very young women can teach programmed curricula effectively if they are trained and supported.

Focus on quality education. Ensure that a school has enough teachers, ongoing teacher training, heavy emphasis on math and science, and adequate books and supplies.

Take Action

1. Visit www.stonesintoschools.com for more info, book reviews, events, and ideas. If you purchase books online, click to Amazon or Ingram and up to 7 percent of all your book or other purchases will go to the Central Asia Institute (www.ikat.org) and be given to a girls' education scholarship fund in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

2. Suggest Stones into Schools to a friend; colleague; book club; women's group; church; civic group; synagogue; mosque; university or high school class; military friends or families; or a group interested in education, literacy, adventure, cross-cultural issues, Islam, or Pakistan and Afghanistan.

3. Check if Stones into Schools is in your local library. If not, either donate a copy or suggest to the library that they add Stones into Schools to their collection. Ask your friends or family in other states to do this also.

4. Encourage your local independent or chain bookstore to carry this book if they do not have it.

5. Write a Stones into Schools book review for Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or a blog. Your candid comments will help bring awareness to this (or any) book and the causes they educate the public about.

6. Ask the book editor of your local newspaper or radio station to consider letting you review the book.

7. Pennies for Peace, www.penniesforpeace.org, is designed for schoolchildren. Get your local school involved to make a difference, one penny and one pencil at a time. Since 1994, more than two hundred million pennies have been raised through Pennies for Peace.

8. If you want to support our efforts to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, you can make a tax-deductible contribution to our nonprofit organization, Central Asia Institute, PO Box 7209, Bozeman, MT 59771, phone 406- 585-7841, www.ikat.org. It costs us $1.00 per month for one child's education in Pakistan or Afghanistan, a penny to buy a pencil, and a teacher's salary averages $1.50 per day.

9. Please direct media or Stones into Schools inquires to [email protected] stonesintoschools.com or call 406-585-7841.