By Allie and Erica | High School Student Ambassadors
It is again time for us to thank you for your generous donation to Kids 4 Afghan Kids. We know that many of you have not only donated through GlobalGiving, but have given time and money in person or are the parents (and chauffeurs) of our many student volunteers.
We have some great news to report! After the success of K4AK’s first project, many villages and the government of Afghanistan have begged K4AK to replicate its success in another village. Kids 4 Afghan Kids thus has accepted the donation of land in northern Afghanistan to start a new project. We envision several schools and a clinic, much like our original project in southwestern Afghanistan. Even better, a donor has committed to build the clinic and the clinic’s foundation stone has already been laid. We are on the way to repeating the success of the first project!
The second village also will provide a measure of security for the children in the original project. The two villages have agreed that in the event of war or other violence, the endangered children of one village will be evacuated to, and cared for by, the other village.
This is an exciting time. We not only are beginning a new project and a seeing a unique friendship develop between two villages, but other schools in the US are asking to start K4AK chapters and help raise money.
It is also bittersweet for us, Allie and Erica, as we are now high school seniors in the process of making final college decisions. We thus are reminded that although we will always be part of K4AK, we may not be able to be as personally involved as we have been for the past nine years.
K4AK volunteer and high school student, Brian, has written the previous GlobalGiving updates. He’s done a great job of explaining how much your donations help the children of Afghanistan. However, we’d like to take this opportunity to explain how much K4AK has meant to us.
We met Mrs. N, and each other, when we joined Northville’s gifted student program at Amerman Elementary School. Mrs. N was our third grade teacher. We were fascinated by her stories of Afghanistan and wanted to learn more and do more to help. Mrs. N asked us and another friend to help her give presentations on the life of Afghan children to various civic groups. By middle school, we even did a few presentations without her and represented Afghanistan at the school district’s annual cultural festival.
Because of Mrs. N, we had an understanding of the Middle East and the impact of landmines and war, along with a considerable curiosity about the world, that few elementary schoolers possess. Of course, our understanding of Afghan life, history and political issues has deepened as we’ve gotten older. Erica plans to take classes in Middle Eastern studies in college.
K4AK also has helped increase our self-confidence. We began giving presentations before we were old enough to be frightened of public speaking. Neither of us now fears either speaking or answering audience questions. We’ve worn traditional Afghan clothing and eaten traditional food. Together we’ve “pounded the pavement,” knocked on doors and written business letters to solicit hundreds of silent auction donations. We’ve run the annual hoedown fundraiser. Each of us has written thank you letters, worked on websites and thought about marketing strategies. One or both of us have designed posters, conducted bottle drives, baked thousands of cake pops to sell and run the school district’s happy gram program. These are all life skills we will carry with us in the future. We think we would have been more two dimensional had we not been part of K4AK.
We know we leave K4AK in good hands with the younger volunteers. We want to thank them for the opportunity to work and laugh with them. We will continue to stay involved in K4AK on our college breaks, and will start Circle of Women[1] chapters in college so we can continue to raise money for girls’ education worldwide, including K4AK’s new northern project .
We also want to thank Mrs. N for giving us the opportunity to learn so much. We are honored to have witnessed first-hand her courage, optimism, rock solid determination and perseverance.
We have developed a huge respect for the people of “our” village who face incredible problems in war torn Afghanistan and yet, have supported the K4AK schools with their very scares recourses, volunteer labor, cheerfulness and hope. We appreciate the amazing courage it takes them to risk their own safety in order to support girls’ education.
Most importantly, we’d like to thank you, our donors, for making it all possible. Thank you for helping us learn and grow. It is because of you and K4AK, that we will be life-long volunteers and child advocates.
Thank you, too, for helping to provide for the impoverished children in Afghanistan, and helping to ensure that girls there get an education. Even when large donors pay for a clinic, school or other building, your donations provide the necessary operating funds and allow us to purchase necessary supplies such as desks, books, medicine and heating oil.
Thank you. We couldn’t do any of it without you.
Allie and Erica
P.S. We have attached a copy of this letter with pictures
[1] Circle of Women was started in 1998 by several Harvard University students who had heard Mrs. N speak to their high school classes. It now has chapters on 12 college campuses and has built classrooms in seven countries, including K4AK’s girls’ high school.
By Brian | High School Student Ambassador
By Brian | High School Student Volunteer
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
