One man’s promise brings hope to 24,000 children in remote Central Asian villages

In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote One School at a Time, Greg Mortenson, and journalist David Oliver Relin recount the unlikely journey that led Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan.  Alone, without food, water, or shelter he eventually stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health. While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks.  The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher.

When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school. In an early effort to raise money he wrote letters to 580 celebrities, businessmen, and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100 cheque from NBC’s Tom Brokaw. Selling everything he owned, he still only raised $2,000. But then a group of Wisconsin elementary school children donated $623 in pennies, inspiring adults to take his cause more seriously. Twelve years later, he has built 58 schools, where this year, 24,000 children will be educated - 14,300 of them girls.

Mortenson created Pennies for Peace, which educates American children about the world and shows them that they can make a positive impact on a global scale, one penny at a time. Pennies for Peace is part of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, which Mortenson co-founded with Dr. Jean Hoemi. The institute's name symbolizes the strength, beauty and resilience of the Central Asian communities it serves, taking its name from ikat, the fabric woven from individually-dyed strands of silk whose vibrant patterns are recognized from village to village.

CAI's community-based programs in education, women's education, and public health and conservation in remote mountain regions of Central Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan involve local people in all phases of projects. A committee of elders and experts guides each project. Before a project starts, the community matches CAI project funds with equal amounts of local resources and labour, ensuring viability and long term success. As well as 58 schools, 520 teachers, teacher training, and school libraries, CAI supports 14 women’s vocational centers and a rural women's vocational fund; rural health care camps and education in maternal health, infant care, and eye care; and sanitation, latrine and potable water projects. 

This story is adapted and abridged from a review of Mortenson's best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote One School at a Time, and from information on his website. Contact: Central Asia Institute, PO Box 7209, Bozeman, MT 59771, USA. Email.

 Three Cups of Tea, has been chosen as its 2008 book by the One Book, One San Diego program run by KPBS and the San Diego Public Library. It encourages all city residents to read and discuss the same book at the same time, as a way of building personal and community connectedness in a busy world. The Epoch Times reports that during the opening event, co-author David Oliver Relin shared this story:

“...part of Mortenson's success can be accredited to an important lesson learned from one of the older men of the first village he built a school in. While running around, trying to find out everyone's schedules, and after much time had passed on the slow project, Relin said that an old man of the village took Mortenson aside and asked him to come to his home, sit and calm down because he was making everyone nervous.

As the man's wife poured them tea the man said, "You need to make time to share three cups of tea with us. If you're going to get anything done in this part of the world, that's what you have to do. The first cup of tea, you're a stranger to us. The second cup of tea, you're an honored guest. By the time you share your third cup of tea, you become family, and for family we'll do anything."

Not long after their conversation the school was completed. Relin said that from this experience Mortenson came to understand that he had to listen and work with the villagers if he was going to accomplish anything. The incident also provided the book's name, Three Cups of Tea.”

UPDATE: Young adult, children's versions published

A children's version of Three Cups of Tea, entitled Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea, written by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth, has just been published, as well as a young adult version of Three Cups of Tea, adapted by Sarah Thomson with a foreword by Dr. Jane Goodall. If you buy these books (or any books) from Amazon.com through the Three Cups of Tea site, the Central Asia Institute will receive 7% of the proceeds.

In her review of the new books entitled Cup Runneth Over in the New York Times March 13, 2009, Krystyna Poray Goddu noted that:

"'Listen to the Wind' tells Mortenson’s story in the clear, succinct voices of the children of Korphe. Leaving out background and history, the picture-book version is nevertheless true to the spirit of Mortenson’s experience and mission. The minimal text is splendidly paired with Susan L. Roth’s textural, earth-toned collages, which evoke the roughness of the terrain and the primitive quality of life there.

"A community spirit pervades: on nearly every spread, we see the multitude of villagers (girls in colorful headscarves; dark-haired boys) who worked with Mortenson to build their school. “Our mothers carried water to mix the cement. . . . With our small fingers we wedged tiny slivers of stones into the cement to make the walls stronger.” The raw quality of the art is counterbalanced by a “Korphe Scrapbook” of color photos documenting the people and places, helping answer a child’s question: Is this true?"

For more stories relating to girls education, see:

Gift of a goat from US schoolchildren leads to Ugandan village’s first college graduate

Girl Child Network empowers the voiceless in Zimbabwe

Bangladesh program to enhance girls' access to education inspires other countries

First female governor brings attention to women, children in Madagascar

Affordable menstrual pads keep girls in school, create jobs