Filed under: Interviews, KCK Schools | Tags: EDUCATION, GREG MORTENSON, HUMANITARIANISM, Interviews, SUMNER HIGH SCHOOL, THREE CUPS OF TEA, VIDEOS
Greg Mortenson, humanitarian and author of the New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time, made a visit to KCKPL early last month. He spoke at a YWCA luncheon and at Wyandotte High School.
Mortenson’s younger sister, Christa, passed away in 1992. To honor her memory, Mortenson set out to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain. After failing to reach the summit, Mortenson spent some time recovering in the village of Korphe. He saw children writing in the sticks with dirt, such was their hunger for education. He made a promise to help build a school.
Out of that promise grew the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit organization committed to building and supporting community-based education programs in the the mountain regions of Central Asia. CAI is especially focused on providing education to women and girls. To date over 60 CAI schools have been constructed in Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing education to over 25,000 children, 14,000 of whom are female.
Greg sat for an interview with KCKPL-ers Rita Miziorko and Steve Oakes to discuss current CAI projects, rumors of a follow-up to Three Cups of Tea, and why he had to turn down Steven Spielberg.
A group of students from Sumner High School attended Greg’s lecture at Wyandotte High School. Here five Sumner students talk about Greg and Three Cups of Tea.
