Middle School Students
On Friendships with Afghan Children
“Hello, My Friend”, writes a young Tob Chi student to her pen pal at CFS. In carefully lettered English, she captures the essence of the CFS Afghan Sister Schools project. From both our communities, we see an openness to friendship halfway around the world – friendship to share letters and exchange gifts, to build understanding, and to help one another in real and practical ways.
Over the past five years, we’ve raised over $35,000 for schools in Afghanistan, eaten lots of fundraiser pizza lunches in the Middle School, and written letters and diaries to our friends in the Bamiyan village of Tob Chi. They’ve sent us wonderful writings and gifts in return. As these relationships develop over time, we can see windows onto other parts of the world opening for them and for us.
Here are some of what CFS Middle School students have to say about the importance of the relationships nurtured through the Afghan Sister Schools Project:
· Zoe Vernon (third year) has exchanged long letters with a girl named Jamila who is 14. Jamila included a photo of herself and drawings – her most recent letter highlights cultural differences when she talks so much about what it means as her brother and sisters get married (e.g., she may have to quit school when her sister marries). She wonders about whom she will marry and what Zoe’s thoughts on this subject are, but this is certainly not something Zoe worries about right now!
· Em Ashley (fourth year) has this to say about her letter exchange: “I love the new friends I’ve made from Afghanistan. I have one pen pal, Karima, that I’ve corresponded with for about four years now. I feel like I know so much about her now and her home life. I’ve learned where she comes from and about her traditions. I like her so much already, I wish I could raise money, have her fly over here and stay with me as an exchange student. I can’t wait to actually meet her one day!”
· Clement Stanback (first year) traveled around the world with her family last year and remembers what it was like being in Africa where people didn’t have refrigerators, so she could imagine more easily than the rest of us what life must be like for our pen-pals in Afghanistan. “It’s really cool having a pen-pal half-way around the world!” she says.
· Jessica Alexander (second year) has exchanged diaries and two letters and helped hook a peace rug with Clement. She says she likes the correspondence because it makes “it feel more real. The world is smaller. Peace is possible.”
An insight into the importance of the bonds being created between the children from CFS and Tob Chi comes from Noorin Nazari, a native of Afghanistan and a Fulbright Scholar at Duke University who has translated many of the letters between the schools. She has noticed a change in the letters from the Afghan children: they have begun to write about personal aspects of their lives and have begun to share their feelings. This shows that these children are feeling a high level of trust in their new CFS friends, a level which Afghans usually share only with those in their circle of family and their closest friends.
As the childrem from Tob Chi and CFS listen to each others’ stories, feelings, and dreams, our hopes for peace grow stronger.
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To read about the celebration of the fifth year of the CFS Afghan Sister Schools Project go to:
To read about Greg Mortenson's work in building schools in the region and his visit to CFS go to:
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"I am majored in Biology and Dance at Oberlin College. My love for Biology began in a middle school Biology course....[Our teacher] often took our class to Duke Forest to learn how to identify different trees, and how they grew and survived together in that environment. This physical interaction with biology is what hooked me."
CFS Alumna
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