By David Kilby, Staff Writer
MONROE — Students at Brookside Elementary are learning how far their extra lunch money can go through the Pennies for Peace program, which has given them a chance to raise money for students in Afghanistan and Pakistan who have no school to go to.
Tens of thousands of students across the globe have participated in this campaign, which was started by Greg Mortenson, author of the New York Times bestseller, “Three Cups of Tea.”
The Pennies for Peace campaign is a program of the Central Asia Institute founded by Mr. Mortenson in 1996. The institute is a registered nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia.
Mr. Mortenson’s institute has built nearly 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which serve more than 28,000 students, 14,000 of whom are girls. Four hundred other mountain villages in the same region are awaiting assistance from the institute as they plan to build new schools.
The campaign is called Pennies for Peace because a penny is the average price for a pencil in Afghanistan. Two to three pennies can buy an eraser there; 15 pennies can buy a notebook; $20 can buy a student’s school supplies for a year; and $300 can buy an annual scholarship.
A teacher’s annual salary in Afghanistan is $600. An entire school there can be supported for a year for $5,000, and for $50,000, a school can be built and supported for five years.
To contribute their part to the Pennies for Peace Program, children at Brookside Elementary School donated a dollar, dipped their hands in paint and placed their handprints on a wall right by the main office of their school.
”We read this book called ‘Breadwinner’ (by Debra Ellis), and we learned how the Taliban rule in Afghanistan,” said Pranav Kuruba, a sixth-grader who donated a dollar to put his handprint on the wall. “We learned how it is in Afghanistan nowadays, and how kids there don’t have education.”
”Before we started, we gave students background information of what’s taking place in Afghanistan,” said Pat Smith, the sixth-grade teacher who began the handprint idea at Brookside School.
She said the students learned about Mr. Mortenson’s quest to build schools for children forbidden to go to school in Pakistan and Afghanistan. As soon as they learned about Mr. Mortenson’s cause, the students wanted to do all they could to support it.
”For sixth-graders moving on from Brookside, this is kind of their way of leaving something behind,” Ms. Smith said regarding the handprints.
The handprints fundraiser is actually only one of the ways they are supporting the cause.
”We stood outside the lunch room with a water jug and collected pennies,” said sixth-grader Sara Fernandez, who also placed her handprint on the wall.
Students at Brookside have filled two water jugs with change and are working on filling their third. Through the handprints on the wall and the water jugs, the school has raised about $700. Ms. Smith said the goal is to raise $1,000.
”It’s important for kids to make connections to the real world,” Ms. Smith said. “The idea of totalitarian leadership was hard for them to get their minds around at first.”
”We could help kids in Afghanistan get an education, especially for women, so they can get equal rights as men,” said Anthony Corbisiero, another sixth-grader who came down to place his handprint on the wall.
”The kids do a lot of different things to support the community,” Ms. Smith added. “This is a little different because it’s more global.”
The website www.penniesforpeace.org has toolkits and curriculum ideas to get students and teachers involved in the program. Ms. Smith registered Brookside as a donor to the program through the website and will send a check when the school is done fundraising.
The fundraiser also has an interdisciplinary dimension because students also painted the mural in the middle of the handprints with the help of art teacher Dave Virelles.
Mr. Virelles and students took two days to create the mural that reads “Pennies for Peace” with a globe in the middle. He provided acrylic paint for the mural and handprints to make them last longer.
”The handprints can’t get wiped off,” he said.
He added, “It’s been fun to be a part of. I’m always eager to get kids involved with art and be creative.”
All in all, the fundraiser simply brings the school together.
”(Greg Mortenson) believes in one man’s mission to promote peace one school at a time,” Ms. Smith said.
As more and more handprints were seen on the wall, more and more students took a trip there during lunch or recess, gave a dollar and put their handprints up as well.
”Once they saw the first handprints up, they all wanted in on the action,” Ms. Smith said.
To get the other grades involved, the sixth-graders, after hearing Mr. Mortenson’s story, visited fifth-, fourth- and third-grade classes and gave them a 15-minute presentation to tell them about the Pennies for Peace cause.
”That was their idea,” Ms. Smith said regarding the presentation to younger classes. “When they recognized the importance of what they were doing, they wanted the little kids to know.”
She added, “They (the students) can make the connection between what they’re doing in class and what’s going on in the world. Some have very strong opinions about it.”
”It’s a sign to be left behind,” said sixth-grader Arsany Malak as he walked up to give his dollar and place his handprint on the wall. “And it’s a sign that we want to help kids in Afghanistan. I think it’s really important for them to get educated so they can grow up and be what they’re actually capable of becoming.”
For Mr. Mortenson’s story and more information about CAI, visit www.ikat.org.

