Afghan Women's Writing Project

I just discovered this amazing online magazine forum; The Afghan Women's Writing Project, an entirely volunteer run collective that 'empowers Afghani women to have a voice in the world despite a deteriorating security situation.'

I want to write, I want to write about
my dreams which never come true,
my power that has always been ignored,
my voice which is never heard by this deaf universe,
my rights which have never been counted,
my life decisions which are always made by others.
Oh my destiny, give me the answer, what am I for in this universe?
What does it mean to be an Afghan woman?
Hmm, I know you can’t provide me with an elegant answer so
Just give me the pen, the hidden pen
So that I can write, that is all I am asking for!...

Excerpt of poem written by Emaan.

The AWWP believes that the right to tell one's story is a human right. Increasing the freedom of women strengthens their capabilities and is an undeniable way towards human and societal development. Every woman has a story to tell. This online magazine and mentorship program between women writers throughout the world is giving voice to those too often hushed. There is nothing like the pen as a tool, as remedy, as revolution. Do take a gander at the site and support these women by commenting, letting them know that they are being heard.

Happy New Year

Lately I have been catching myself making greetings like, 'Have a Merry Christmas!' and then remembering that I live in one of the most diverse cities in the World - with a rich woven myriad of creeds. I have come to the understanding that a lovely, and universal greeting to recall is the New Year. Although the calenders of some cultures vary in its time, all people understand and celebrate renewal each year. Here is Happy New Year greetings in a few languages from around the world.

Happy New Year!

سنة سعيدة - Kul 'am wa antum bikhair
Arabic

Shana Tova ראש השנה
Rosh Hashanah, the 'head of the Year' is Jewish New Year.

Bonne année
French

Feliz año nuevo
Spanish

'С Новым Годом! - s Novym godom
Russian

新年快乐

Mandarin
Chinese Lunar New Year/Spring Festival -


Heri za Mwaka Mpya
Swahili

Our Most Untapped Resource

"Educate a boy, and your educate and individual.
Educate a girl, and you educate a community. "
- African proverb via Greg Mortensen


"When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life. "
- Kofi Annan


"Women hold up half the sky."
- Mao Tse-Tung via 'Half the Sky' by Nicholas D. Kristof


*All photos by me, Rebecca Thom (Tanzania, Togo and Ghana)

Give a Little, It Will Mean A Lot

Emilie from Chad lives in the Bronx with her husband Bour

Another organization I can wholly support this holiday season is the work and efforts of the IRC. The International Rescue Committee works with refugees who have fled violence and persecution in their home countries. A fortunate few are granted sanctuary in the United States, where the IRC helps families resettle in a world very different from their own.

• We prepare adults to become self-sufficient by offering job skills training, English classes, job placement assistance, cultural orientation to life in America and practical advice including help negotiating public transportation and navigating financial systems.

• We invest in children by making sure they enroll in school and have access to tutoring, mentoring and recreational activities.

• We strengthen families through parenting classes and counseling. And we ensure every refugee has access to health services.

• We provide emergency housing assistance while refugees work to secure employment so that homelessness is never an option.

Give a holiday gift that helps refugees in your local community:

Your donation will support these efforts and will help newly resettled refugees in your community move beyond surviving and start thriving. And, when you choose one of the following gifts in honor of friends and loved ones by December 15, IRC will send them a personalized holiday card in your name.

A $25 gift can provide a backpack full of supplies for a refugee child starting school in the U.S.

A $75 gift can provide essential household supplies for a newly resettled refugee family including blankets, sheets and cooking utensils.

A $150 gift can provide emergency housing assistance to a refugee family.

A $300 gift can provide job training to help a refugee woman become a certified home daycare provider.

Conscious Christmas Shopping

I live in New York City - Where the month of November is but a gearing up for Black Friday, in a country where people leave their homes before digesting their turkey in order to get in line for the grand sales of the next day.

Yet, our country is edging towards a 10% unemployment rate. Couldn't we be doing more this season than just dashing for the next sale?

Here are just a few sustainable initiatives which have sparked my attention this Holiday Season, among others:

- Heifer International - You can give a Heifer, sheep or flock of ducks along with many other livestock, which provides someone in a developing nation with means to a sustainable living.

- Kate Spade and Women for Women International have created a partnership in Afghanistan and Bosnia, making quality goods while providing high wage jobs.

Both of these Afghan-made knitwear products can be bought in Kate Spade Boutiques in New York.

Ten-Thousand Villages also has goods from all over the world using Fair Trade Practices.

The World in 2011

This week I had the utmost pleasure of volunteering for The Economist's Annual Conference: The World in 2011 in New York City. In attendance were great thinkers and architects from disciplines across the board, and viewpoints voiced from around the world. Between speakers the two screens on either side of the stage played videos from citizens in Moscow, Shanghai, Jerusalem and Antarctica giving their predictions for the world in 2036.

Although some of the talks were dismal in news, a few speakers really caught my attention. Here I will only name two.

The first was a panel of remarkable women,

Mu Sochua, Member of Parliament, Cambodia,
Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO, Women for Women International
and Kah Walla, Director, Strategies S.A.

This talk made up the 'Women's Economy,' the most untapped, and fastest growing sector. The resounding message was clear; Women are taking the helm. Marcia Reynolds recently blogged a similar mantra in the Huffington Post titled, The Decade of the Woman is Upon us. She writes;

"In addition to the powerful worldwide consumer force that women represent today, factors such as urban migration, increased access to education, mobile technologies, micro-credit and low-market entry costs will create a global "she-conomy" where over one billion women will enter the workforce or start businesses by 2020."

Mu Sochua started her predictions naming women, the "she-economy" as the way forward in 2011. " As she as in economy, and she as in business," she said. Zainab reiterated, marking the need for inclusion for women not only in the micro- but also the macro- levels. Women need markets that are provided by the private sector. For example, Kate Spade, who has started outsourcing to a community of Afghan women, creating jobs while also responding to the consumer's demand to information and fair production. This is the way forward.

Girls in Kigoma, Tanzania, 2010.

Click here for more about the Women for Women and Kate Spade Partnership in Afghanistan.

Another deeply interesting speaker was Nick Shore, Senior Vice President of Strategic Consumer Insights and Research at MTV. His research of late has consisted of deep inquiry into the Millenial generation. The Y-gens are the single largest generational cohort in the history of the US, he started. They're rather narcissistic, he described, and yet they are the most powerful influencing factor propelling change. And research suggests that change is already here.

Take the nuclear family for example. In the past the configuration was the children radiating from the parents at the nucleus. Now he said, the children are designated the nucleus of the family. The children have become the main focus, and the family now operated more like a democracy, or 'peer-ocracy' than traditional family structures of the past.

Kids are living in an era of 'peer-ticipation' and 'peer-iarchy,' where everything is broadcast to friends and family. Youth have a voice more than ever, Shore said.

As social interface holds no boundaries this also means that increasingly youth do not find the time or space to reflect or spend time alone. I believe this new social paradigm will require changes in schools, to provide students with opportunities to quieten their brains from all of the information and chatter. Learning meditation or some other mind-body conditioning seems a healthy way for students to have the opportunity to check in with themselves, not to mention their bodies.

Another fantastic conference from The Economist community.

Why I'm loving 'Stones into Schools'

"Haji Ali spoke. ‘If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die. Doctor Greg, you must take time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated but we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.’ That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly…Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."

— Greg Mortenson 'Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time'

Photo from 'Three Cups of Tea'

Haji Ali was the Pakistani village elder that found and hosted Mortenson when he became lost after a failed attempt at climbing K2. The respect and integrity of this first relationship became the foundation for Greg's vision to help build schools in the far reaches of Pakistan, and eventually Afghanistan. Greg understood that in order to work with the communities he would have to build deep relationships, understand the complex tribal customs and languages and employ local members of the community. His team in Pakistan, the dirty dozen, he calls them, is made up of numerous different tribes and professional backgrounds. Some are educated, others are former Taliban members. Their common goal is to help build schools for children.

Greg Mortenson's NGO, the Asia Institute has built schools, and community-led projects throughout deeply rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His story, told in both adult and children's versions of 'Three Cups of Tea' and the more recent, 'Stones into Schools,' accounts how balanced education is actually a mode of peace building, reducing the occurrence of students getting recruited into extremist Madrassas.

Mortenson understands the importance of working respectfully with local custom. His contracts with new projects always commence with the Islamic prelude,

'Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim'

(In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the beneficial)

Then, he underlines why they must build a school (i.e. Usually because the government has not provided one). 'The Central Asia Institute will provide building materials, skilled labor, school supplies, and help with teachers' salary and training,' he writes,
while, 'the local community, under local governance agrees to provide free land, subsidized manual labor and support for teachers.'

Then, they promise that the exact terms will be worked out after a jirga is convened. A jirga is a traditional council session, a formal gathering of elders sitting in a circle on a carpet, or under a tree, and as a rule the participants are forbidden from adjourning until consensus has been achieved around a decision. This means that it is only with the full support of a community that a project will get underway.
,
Other than his adept character, ceaseless work and courage, Mortenson understands the importance of sitting with the village elders, of taking the time to do it right. His approach has allowed him to build hundreds of schools in one of the most removed and dangerous regions of the world.

It is a lesson in Peace.

Elders, they're good n' plenty

My first friend in America was Ruth Henderson, a small, bright-eyed woman with soft white curls around her face. I had arrived in Oregon from England during the spring of first grade, and Ruth was one of the first people at school not to bother me for my accent. From the onset of our first discussion we commenced a dear friendship. She was 93. Despite her age Ruth was agile and vibrant. I went for tea at her home on a few occasions and can remember vividly the smells, her artwork and books stacked on the walls and shelves and the life in her voice when she told me stories of world travel. Even as I got older Ruth would visit me in my other classrooms when she would come back to volunteer for the first grade reading program; One day she brought me a little jewelery box filled with good n' plenties and a tiny gold ring with a small ruby embedded. I still wear it now, on my pinkie. I still remember Ruth everyday, though it's not because of the ring, it's because she was my first memorable mentor.

Perhaps I was a strange child, but I have always loved intergenerational closeness. It seems to me that elders and youth share a sweet, mutual sub-didactic. That is, there is a great deal of communication, learning and engaging - on a very elemental level. There have been times that I have connected deeply with an elder in the absence of a common language. Youth need elders, and elders need youth. It is a basic and age old formula.

Fez Orator tells a story to a group of young men. Morocco, 2007. -RT

Yet, we have forgotten. Western custom today dictates separation between ages. Kids in school are separated by age, rather than passion and our elderly are politely put away in retirement homes. It is my humble opinion that placing our Grandparents and Parents in homes only diminishes prospects of longevity. It cuts them off from life.

I just read about a superb program in Oklahoma, where they built a preschool classroom encased in glass, in the heart of The Grace Living Center, a Retirement home foyer. The retirees were naturally interested in the sprightly kids and some offered to volunteer time. That being so, Book Buddies was conceived; a partnership of elders and preschoolers who read to them aloud. The reading levels have since soared and many of the retirees diminished their doses of medication as a result of surging levels of vitality.

Are we tapping into our intergenerational treasure-chest enough? I don't think so. I believe it is an essential move in fostering greater understanding in an era when things are changing more quickly than we know how to grasp. We need the dialogue and shared learning between generations; A first grader can give technological support to a 90 year old, and the elder can help the child master reading, listening and the ever-valuable offering of engagement.

You can read more about the Grace Living Center partnership with Oklahoma Public Schools ain this edutopia article, or where I discovered the story, in Sir Ken Robinson's book; 'The Element; How finding your Passion can Change Everything.'

Single-Use Plastic is of no use.

Although the world's oceanic gyres are largely imperceptible from land, these are the kind of systems that youth need to be grappling with. How does Consumption lead to Pollution, Circulation, Accumulation and Ingestion?

Ocean Gyre : is a kind of vortex, a large system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with strong wind movements.

Plastic gets caught within the forceful currents of these gyres and, because it is made to last, will stay in the ocean for decades, not degrading, but breaking down into smaller bits. The North Pacific gyre is most heavily researched for plastic pollution - It spans roughly twice the size of the United States, though it shifts in mass and shape with the sea and changes in ocean current. There are efforts being made to understand these vast bodies of collected debris, yet, the real difference will take place from efforts on the ground. It is our habits that must change. We honestly have no use for single-use plastics. Can you eliminate them from your household?

Light on Plastic. South Eastern Coastline of Ghana. 2009

The most devastating aspect of the disposable-products era is that the inventions of the west have been shipped abroad. Most developing nations have survived throughout the ages without plastic, but now it is ubiquitous in markets, littered along the sides of the road and strewn across beaches such as this one in Ghana.

Here is a fantastic educational website about the oceans 5 Gyres. I learned a great deal about the ocean's health this weekend at TEDx Brooklyn; Here is a blog written by one of the speakers which focuses on plastic reduction.

Learning on the streets of Fez

Or, 'An Introduction to Globalization Education...'

Fez is Morocco’s spiritual capital. Like Morocco’s larger cities Fez is divided between the medina, the ancient, walled city and the new city with its supermarkets, boutiques, cafés and high-rise buildings. The call to prayer chimes and echoes throughout the city five times daily, reminding all of their place. However, unlike the uniformity of the prayers, the people are contrasting – Even within one family. Walking down the cobbled street there are three women, three generations walking arm in arm. The grandmother is covered from head to toe in a black burqa, leaving only her eyes visible, her daughter is wearing a simple hijab, leaving only her face exposed, while the granddaughter is dressed in the latest fad of jeans and a soft, form-fitting blouse. Her hair is exposed, blow-dried into a large coiffure, much like Egyptian pop singers on television. She is speaking French into her cell phone. As I look at them I recognize the significance of our time. We live in a global era, where modernity clashes with tradition and boundaries are no longer dictated by the nation state. There has been little foresight for the unprecedented scope of globalization we have entered. Tradition and culture are fluid and ever changing and schools too, must make changes to prepare and empower youth to be citizens in the 21^st century.

"…what a difference it would make to our understanding if we looked at the world as a whole, a totality, a system, instead of as a sum of self-contained societies and cultures; if we understood better how this totality developed over time; if we took seriously the admonition to think of human aggregates as “inextricably involved with other aggregates, near and far, in weblike, netlike connections.

- Wolf, Europe and the People Without History