Building schools in Afghanistan will be just as effective as dropping bombs to help America win the war on terror, says Greg Mortenson.

        Mr. Mortenson has worked to promote education — especially for girls — in remote provinces of Afghanistan and Pakistan since 1993. He returned from his most recent trip to Afghanistan in November.

        A failed attempt to climb K2 in Kashmir — the world's second-highest peak — acquainted him with the region's rich culture and grinding poverty. Since then, he has made several extended trips to the region, and was there on Sept. 11.

        He has helped build several schools, bridges and drinking water projects, and next month, he'll return to Afghanistan to help build more schools for girls.

        In 1996, he was held hostage for eight days and used as a “bargaining chip” between warring tribes in northern Afghanistan.

        Mr. Mortenson, founder and director of the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit foundation dedicated to fostering girls' education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, says the Afghans welcomed the United States' role in toppling the repressive Taliban regime.

        “The Taliban were only about 40,000 strong in a country of about 25 million people. Most of the people I met were very happy to see the Taliban removed from power, and more importantly, to see that bin Laden's network had been somewhat destroyed,” he says.

        Mr. Mortenson will promote his mission Friday during a presentation at the Cincinnati Art Museum's Alms Auditorium. His slide show and talk, “Three Cups of Tea,” is based on his work in the war-torn region.

        In a telephone interview from his home in Bozeman, Mont., this week, he talked about his work.

        Question: What brought you to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the first place?

        Answer: I was there climbing K2. My sister, Christa, had died the previous year (1992) from severe epilepsy. She was mentally handicapped and everything was a struggle for her, but her perseverance and joy inspired a lot of people.

        I went to climb the mountain in her memory. I didn't quite get to the top. I was 1,000 feet from the top and disappointed, emotionally exhausted. I spent 78 days on the mountain before I was befriended by two Balti porters. They took me back to their village and for three weeks, they took care of me and fed me and sheltered me.

        It was there I realized the tremendous adversity that people are up against. One out of three babies die before age 1. The literacy rate is about 3 percent.

        I asked about a school, and they took me up to this dirt field behind the village where I saw 84 children sitting in the dirt, sharing five slates among themselves, diligently doing their lesson. They shared the teacher with a neighboring village because they couldn't afford his $1 daily wage.

        What struck me was, even without a teacher, they were diligently doing their lessons, sitting in big circles in the dirt. In America, it would be pandemonium without a teacher there. They reminded me of Christa.

        Q: What's your reaction to the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan?

        A: First of all, I supported the military action, and I believe most people over there also did. The one thing I would comment on is, and I was in Washington, D.C., last week where I testified at a congressional hearing, the Afghan civilian casualties were not acknowledged and were somewhat swept under the rug.

        If the Pentagon had acknowledged the casualties, gone to these people, offered them an apology and $100, $200 compensation, that would have gotten a lot more support from the general populace. You could say these people died for a great cause, the freedom of the Afghan people, that their deaths were not in vain.

        Q: You were in Afghanistan on Sept. 11. How did the people react to the attacks on the United States?

        A: It took only eight hours for the message to get to me by porter and foot and mule. Originally, they told me that a village in New York had been bombed and there were 50,000 dead.

        This was a place without phones, fax, electricity, TV. Two days later they brought a satellite phone to me and I got the circumstances. Their immediate reaction was that the Taliban would attack and there would be a massive U.S. retaliation. I was in a non-Taliban area, the Wakahan region in extreme northeast Afghanistan.

        I decided to stay. Most of the foreigners — there was a handful in the region — left. I've been working there for nine years. The people know me. Everywhere I went, I received an outpouring of sympathy and support.

        Q: With the Taliban gone, what kind of future do you see for the region?

        A: There's been over 20 years of fighting with the Soviets and then with the Taliban. There's 3 million widows in Afghanistan and 500,000 children who have been maimed by land mines. There's a lot of work to be done.

        I definitely think this is the time when significant aid needs to go to the country.

        They need basic aid, like education, clean drinking water, basic health care.

        Q: How would you describe the social climate in Afghanistan?

        A: The great majority of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan have great respect for the U.S. and they're in awe of our power and wealth. I do not see, in my dealings with the thousands of people I meet, anger or hatred toward the U.S. They're reaching out. They want help.

        In '89, after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, it was the year the U.S. banned the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, because we were worried they could carry nuclear warheads. There were several tag-on bills that began sanctions against Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those sanctions ended up closing hundreds of public schools in the tribal lands of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

        Ironically it was the terrorist groups and the fundamentalist Islamic groups that began opening hundreds of Islamic religious schools, the madrases, and tens of thousands of boys ended up joining the madrases. It was their only way out of poverty and their only hope for education.

        Since '94, when the Taliban took over, over 80,000 boys from these religious schools joined the Taliban. They were fertile recruiting grounds. The Taliban saw a vacuum and they rushed in and they recognized the value of education.

        Q: What are Afghanistan's greatest needs?

        A: Girls' education is one of the key and most vital needs for the region, for stability and to bring about a better quality of life. There've been studies done all around the world that girls' education, first, reduces the exploding population growth; second, reduces infant mortality; and third, improves the quality of health and life itself.

        If you educate a girl, you educate a community, and if you educate a boy, you educate an individual. The men leave the village and look for opportunities. The women stay behind and instill the value of education in their children. Afghanistan also needs clean drinking water and basic health care.

        I'm going back in March to build more schools and drinking water projects. There's a lot of think tanks and a lot of talk about billions of dollars. Twenty percent of the people haven't gotten food aid. There's been a lot of talk, but so far, very little action.

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