stones into schools

" 'Look here. Look at these hills,' [the leader of one such community] said as he pointed toward the mountains looming over the town, whose lower slopes were strewn with countless rocks and boulders. 'There has been far too much dying in these hills. Every rock, every boulder that you see before you is one of my mujahadeen, shahids, martyrs, who sacrificed their lives. . . . Now we must make their sacrifice worthwhile. . . . We must turn these stones into schools.' "


Greg Mortenson the writer of this book, recounting his effort to establish 131 schools, many primarily for girls. Those efforts were diverted when a massive earthquake hit the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan in October 2005. He set up temporary schools and then several earthquakeproof schools. Then, he establishs schools in Afganistan in 2007. He helps the U.S. Military formulate new strategic plan as a road map to peace.

He'd been inspired to action when the village nurtured him back to health after a failed mountaineering attempt on K2 in 1993. When he encountered the community's thirst for education for its children and realized how unlikely it was that this thirst would be quenched, he set out to construct a single school.

The Mortenson’s philosophy is: He believes that conflict in the region will not be won by combat and airstrikes but with books, pencils and notebooks.