Streets of Afghanistan – A Cultural Exhibition

One of the most important things we can do as a non-profit organization is to make a connection. Not just between donors and projects, but between communities and individuals. Working in Afghanistan makes that connection very difficult to achieve.

Time and time again, people travel to the far-flung corners of the world, and come back changed forever. Touched by the people they met, the smells, the food, the landscape, they become connected in a visceral way. The people that have lived and worked in Afghanistan have that visceral connection, but it is not a place we can take donor trips to or host student exchanges.

Couple the lack of security with the media coverage of the war on terror, and the stereotypes built around a nation that has endured nearly forty years of conflict, and it becomes even more difficult to connect to the real Afghanistan. Mountain2Mountain was founded on the idea that we can create a ripple effect of change and compassion by connecting communities and cultures.

Out of that founding principle, Streets of Afghanistan was born. A multimedia exhibition that unites Afghan and Western photographers and videographers to bring a little piece of Afghanistan into our world for one night. Visitors walk amongst 10×8 foot high images and video projections that recreate the market streets in Kabul. The rolling green hills captured by photographer Beth Wald, look more akin to Norway than Afghanistan until you notice the yak train in the corner. It creates a different sense of place than the deserts and dusty landscapes usually associated with the region. The beauty, and the dichotomy of that beauty, set against the destruction and history takes your breath away.

The signature image of the exhibition, is a woman covered in a burqa sitting with her child in her lap, begging in the middle of the road. The image captures both the pain and beauty of Afghanistan; juxtaposing the dream-like quality of the country and its residents, against the ravaging effects of three decades of conflict and war. Photographer Tony Di Zinno captured the image from an oncoming car — lensing the feeling of impending contact. In reality, the driver stopped when he came to the woman and handed her some food from the kebab stand he had just visited for lunch.

Interspersed amongst the landscapes and streets, seven-foot-high portraits of women greet visitors. Images of teachers, students, police officers, ministers of parliament, mothers, and victims of self-immolations show the diversity of the women of Afghanistan — their beauty and strength in a country known for its oppression. Walking, ghost-like, through the crowd the images, and the video projections of market scenes and rural life, are real women dressed in the different colored burqas of Afghanistan.

Art has the power to change. Streets of Afghanistan aims to do just that; open hearts and minds in an effort to combat apathy with compassion. “Dare to believe in our common humanity” is not just our tagline — its a call to action. Come join us!

Streets of Afghanistan opens in Denver with a one day event at the Denver Art Museum on April 28, 2011, followed by an event at the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art as it begins its journey as a traveling cultural exhibition.

 

photo by Di Zinno

An Army of Women

Hilary Clinton wrote the book and thus coined the phrase, “It Takes a Village”.

In our case, I’d argue it takes an army.

Not a military one.  An army of women.  A battalion of passionate mothers, daughters, and sisters, that are willing to sacrifice time, money, and energy to be crusaders of gender equity and human rights.

The time of turning a blind eye, of ignoring the headlines, or saying, “but what can I do about it?” has passed.  The time for change is now.

No longer can we ignore the women raped around the world, the girls trafficked across borders for prostitution, or the unplanned babies born to both.   Women and girls traded as commodities and used like a disposable, empty, object.

No more can we dismiss genital mutilation, ironing breasts, or other torturous concepts that put the blame of rape and childhood pregnancy on the women, instead of punishing the men that perpetrate the crimes.  Mutilating women to stem sexual assault just adds insult to injury.

It is not acceptable that as women living in the West, enjoying the freedoms women before us fought for, that we do not rally, advocate, and work to ensure that women EVERYWHERE have these freedoms.

It is not enough to shout against the injustice done to women across the globe.

Action is the key.  As women, we must act.  As mothers, sisters, daughters, we must act.

We must build schools, train women, employ women, support women.  Provide education and healthcare to women.  Advocate against violence and mutilation practices.

Action, a forward momentum, an effort to make a change.  Little steps by the masses create large ripples that change lives.

John F. Kennedy stated, “One person can make a difference and EVERYONE must try.”  One woman on her own, can change several lives if she commits.   An army of committed women can change the world.

photo by Di Zinno

Crowdrise – social networking for philanthropy

The last thing I need is a another social networking site to join.  I manage the M2M Facebook page, Twitter, blog, and website in addition to my own personal posts, tweets, blogs, and a profile on LinkedIn.  But Crowdrise is different, worth it, and totally harnesses the power for good, the energy of social networking, with a healthy dose of lowball humor thanks to founders Wil Ferrell, Ed Norton, and a whole slew of celebrities.

Their tagline captures the spirit:  If you don’t give back, no one will like you.

In their own words, “Crowdrise is about volunteering, raising money for Charity and having the most fun in the world while doing it. Crowdrise is way more fun than anything else aside from being all nervous about trying to kiss a girl for the first time and her not saying something like ‘you’ve got to be kidding me.’”

So I sat down with Megan and Corinne, two of our Development Board members to figure out what its all about.  I paid them each $20 to create profiles and post donations so we could see how it worked.

You can support a charity itself (hopefully us!) or a specific project that a charity is raising money for.  You can become a team member, recruit others, and the best part?  The unique aspect of earning points for each donation you make.  Points earn you cool prizes from Crowdrise’s sponsors, like Patagonia messenger bags, ipads, and more.

This won’t replace traditional donations through our website directly or snail mail checks in the mail from the old school contingent that still don’t trust the internet.  But if you are active on Facebook and Twitter, donating through Crowdrise gives your donation a voice – by showing your friends and family you care about a specific project, and giving you the ability to recruit others, share the link on your social networking sites, and tracking how close we are to our goal.  Something not possible through a traditional website.

So our first project page is dedicated to our deaf school in Kabul.  We got land donated from President Karzai, and the primary school construction donated by Innovida, a green technology construction company.  Fabulous news!  The more fabulous news?  They are ready to build NOW and can complete the school in about a month.  But we need to build the security wall and the secondary school so that the entire student population can move into the school at the same time.

So – visit our project page, to see the project, and donate whatever you can.  The beauty of a ‘vocal’ donation?  $20 goes a long way if you can find another 10 people to give $20!  So you need to share the project page on your FB and Twitter about it!   The potential is that its viral… think the Obama campaign!  Small donations by millions of people – we can all be part of the change we wish to see in the world.  Even if we think we can’t afford it!

Help us build this school!  Visit the link, donate, share, and make yourself and M2M heard!  This way – even the deaf children in Afghanistan will hear you!

Small Footprint Approaches to Solve Large Problems

Afghanistan ranks 191 – currently dead last –  on the Quality of Life Index. To compare: DR Congo and Cambodia are tied at 160.

Maternal deaths are the 2^nd highest in the world., where one women dies every 30 minutes.

Newborn deaths are the highest in the world with 1 in 4 children dying before their 5^th birthday.

81% of women deliver at home without assistance.   Women and their babies die in childbirth or in the first two days due to lack of medical care and support.

80% of these deaths could be managed by a skilled birth attendant (SBA).

19% of newborn deaths come from asphyxia, and 50% from simple infections.  Both are preventable with simple tools.

That’s the cold hard facts.  Women are not valued the same as men or boys in Afghanistan.  In populated areas, often families are simply unwilling to pay for available health care for women when they are sick.  Their lives are simply not worth a $25 doctor’s visit.  In rural areas, the family may not HAVE $25 for a doctor’s visit.

Mountain 2 Mountain is approaching this problem with a fully unique approach that mirrors their cyclical model for education, training, job creation, and small business start ups.  Smaller footprint, less infrastructure, more education and training, microfinance, and sustainable development to reduce dependence.

The traditional model employed by larger NGO’s build and staff midwifery training clinics in large communities so that they can bring graduates to a centralized location.  Afghanistan is a decentralized country even at the government level, and when coupled with the gender and cultural issues that often prevent young women to travel outside of their communities alone for schooling, it is often ineffective.  Conversely, it is difficult to encourage graduates of these schools to travel to rural areas to live and work as health care workers.  Freedom of movement and relocation for Afghan women is not the same as it is in other regions of the world.  This model is cumbersome and doesn’t address the immediate issue at hand. High rates of women and babies will continue to die in rural communities.

Our approach not only takes these important points into account by bringing the education to the rural communities and training local girls, often only a 4^th grade level.  These candidates can learn enough during an intensive four week training in their community to effectively manage and potentially prevent nearly 70% of maternal and newborn deaths.

Each year another 4 week training will take place to continue their education and allow it time to be put into practice.  The full program would take 5 years to complete.  This may seem like a long process, but the effect is immediate after the initial 4 week training.

Skilled birth attendants can make an impact by decreasing birthing deaths, teaching basic sanitation and prenatal care to their community, and creation of jobs for women in rural communities that often have no opportunities for female employment.

The long term effect is a thriving, healthy community, and a shift in the role of women within the male dominated society.  They prove their worth and earn respect organically by provided a needed service to their community.

That’s not to say that certified midwives and OB/GYN’s are not needed.  They most definitely are, but larger NGO’s can do that work best with bigger budgets and deeper resources.

When strong candidates, with talent, education, and family support, emerge for continued education we would sponsor those candidates for further nursing or midwife training programs and ensure that we can set them up with clinics and support back in their village upon completion of their training.

This model can be replicated throughout rural communities across the country, with Western doctors and nurses that have a knack for teaching and want to donate their time for the 4 week trainings.   Spending the majority of the funding on education, training, equipment, and resources, versus construction and staffing of large scale training clinics.

We plan to move forward with this village to village approach to health care and midwifery with our first communities this year, so that our first round of skilled birth attendants can make an impact in their respective villages.  We look forward to sharing with you their progress in the months and years to come.

Thunderstorm Mission

“I guess the real question is, do we want to be a trickle or a thunderstorm?”  That was the question our Board Member, Wessel Booynsen, asked when I returned from Afghanistan last October.

Music to my ears.

My main goal with my return from Afghanistan was to look at the overarching vision – what change do we want to effect?    Do we limit ourselves to education?  To women and girls?  To Afghanistan?  Limitations kill my motivation.  Its like dousing a fire with a bucket of sand, not even a spark remains.

Thinking big is scary, but sometimes you have to put the cart before the horse, and look ahead at what you want to achieve in order to work backwards from there.   Sure, we could be a trickle.  Neatly ticking off one project at a time in an orderly fashion.  But I’m more excited by the thunderstorm, allow ourselves to think outside the box, expressing the magnitude of what we want to accomplish and then finding a way to get the lightening cracks started.

Moving beyond the staid, straightforward models that typically are associated with war zones dealing with the serious issues of gender inequity, abuse of women and girls, slavery, human trafficking, extreme poverty, and daily violence.   We would become a new generation of non profit.

1.  Work WITH Afghans, listen to them, learn from them, and look at ways we can act as catalysts for change.   Letting go of assumptions and

2. Create a cyclical model whenever possible.  Work to make deep, sustainable change by following through projects to the end goal. Education is our entry point towards empowerment, not the end result.  We need to focus on creating jobs, markets, and opportunities.  If we identify a region that is lacking midwives, we will work not only to train women from the area, but also work to set up small clinics for them to work out of.   We will also look at ways we can help home births in regions until midwives or health care practitioners are trained in the region, preventing unnecessary maternal and newborn deaths in a region that has the highest death rate in the world.

3.  We will be agile and nimble – working to solve problems, not create a replicable project.  More difficult?  Yup.  More beneficial?  Definitely.

4. We are focused on Afghanistan, but will also embrace opportunities that present themselves in other remote regions and conflict areas where women and children’s rights and lives are ignored.  If we can affect change, we must not let borders be an excuse not to.

5.  We will partner wherever possible.  Instead of trying to do a little of everything, we will focus on what we do best and partner with others that do what THEY do best.  Especially when we can utilize the support of local community organizations that deeply vested in change.   Eliminating the need to stamp our name on every project we do, we instead work behind the scenes help to empower locals.

6.  We will embrace our original and founding ethos of connecting communities and cultures – it is not just a toss away thought.  It is actually as important as the projects themselves.  Using photography, bikes, storytelling, and school project exchanges, we will work to connect our cultures, our schools, and our communities to further the potential for long term understanding and support.

As I look to my next return to Afghanistan this month, I am excited by the freedom the Board has entrusted me with to create the thunderstorm.  Look out for rainy days ahead!

Breathe…and Take your First Step

Humbling.

Inspiring.

Invigorating.

Painful to look at.

That’s what I thought when I was sent this video from 2007 a couple days ago.  Jolina Karen, of Our Great Life asked myself and my partner-in-crime, Tara Kusumoto to take part in a video interview for her website.  The purpose was to document and share the story of how Mountain to Mountain was started.  Why did I do it?  What obstacles arose?  What did we accomplish and more importantly…what next?  Jolina wanted to share our story, but also look at ways that people become inspired to create change.

Other interviewees include our local ‘jungle doctor’, Doc PJ.  A one man medical mission in areas of remote Honduras, Nepal, Indonesia, and more recently, Sudan.  We are hoping to possibly work with PJ in the future in joint projects in Nepal.

Looking back, while its more than a little painful to watch yourself on video, its really cool to see that place and time preserved.  Tara was the other half of the coin in our first cycle to support Greg Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute and without her we wouldn’t have accomplished as much as we did.  Being able to see our relationship and our joint passion for the subject re-inspires me at a time where M2M is moving forward with the creation of our new evolution.  A Board of Directors and Advisory Board, new programming outreach, and new projects and collaboration in Afghanistan and other areas of Central Asia.

The irony is that I never wanted to do it.  It was a couple of weeks after a seven month push and I was beyond exhausted.  Getting in front of a camera was the LAST thing I wanted to do, much less rehash the last seven months.  I let Tara set the meeting and I dragged myself there – but the experience was a good one and now, in retrospect, I’m glad a record is out there.

Sometimes looking back helps remind you why you are moving forward.

One step at a time.

Our Great Life – Mountain to Mountain Video

Visions of Kabul

On Monday we leave for Kabul.  The first trip to Afghanistan and the first trip on behalf of Mountain to Mountain.

Our primary focus is to meet with the staff with AINA and the Afghan photojournalists that are represented by the AINA Photo Agency.  AINA’s focus is on empowering media and communication.  Through filmmaking, photography, radio, journalism, and design, AINA trains, produces, and empowers individuals and communities to speak out and make sustainable changes within Afghanistan.

Mountain to Mountain has created a photography exhibit, Views of Afghanistan, with the help of some of the world’s top war photographers.  This show will showcase several Afghan photographers alongside Western photojournalists with a long history of working inside Afghanistan.   Proceeds from the show will go to benefit AINA to create a sustainable and profitable agency that continues to empower, train, and provide outlets for Afghan photojournalism and media.

Our second tier focus is meetings with other NGO’s; Turquoise Mountain, Afghans for Tomorrow, Be Peace, and develop a better understanding of how local NGO’s are working in the current climate throughout Afghanistan.  Our focus with Mountain to Mountain has been with sustainable girls education in remote mountain communities and we’d like to see where we can continue this work in Afghanistan in years to come.

Our third tier is more cultural than non profit.  We are taking in a game of buzkashi (a cross of horse polo and rugby), meeting with a master kite maker, and also with a burqa maker.  We are meeting with artisans and architects with Turquoise Mountain.  All with the desire to illustrate stories of traditional Afghan sports and culture that is thriving in the post-Taliban era that we can pitch to different media outlets outside of Afghanistan, in the hope of shining a light on the people and stories that are often shelved in lieu of war and terrorism stories.

It all comes around to the focus of Mountain to Mountain’s outreach at home: storytelling.  Through traditional storytelling, photography, poetry, education, and multimedia, we want to break stereotypes and bring our projects to life, with the goal of garnering more support and donations for our projects.

Dari is the most common language in Kabul and I have been practicing my pronunciation with an ex-Peace Corps friend who worked in Afghanistan in the sixties.  It feels quite natural and I am enjoying the process much more than I have when I learned French and German.  So I am feeling confident in my pigeon-Dari and hope to practice more with our translator, Najibullah.  I am hoping to go to a few areas of the city where only women are allowed and will not be allowed in with my male translator.

After all the planning, its hard to believe we are going to be in the air while our own country is casting its vote for our new president.   I am anxious to see how the result is received in Afghanistan firsthand, fingers crossed that it is received positively.

Many thanks for all of the support and good wishes and please stay tuned for daily blogs from Kabul starting November 5th.

Shannon

Fundraising Boredom

Former Black Panther, Assata Shakur, sums up our philosophy towards fundraising at Mountain to Mountain, “We do not have the right, in the name of social justice, to bore people to death.”

How are you going to attract people to your organization, and thus, your cause, if the most they can be expected to do is write a check?  That check may help in the short term, but the donor is not aware of where that check is going, whose life is being affected, and won’t be someone we can count on to give again and again.   We want our supporters, donors, and volunteers to be excited about the work we and our partners are doing.  Excited to be part of the events, excited enough to open their wallet, excited enough to come to future events, and excited enough to tell their friends and family about it.

Mountain to Mountain aims to create cultural and athletic events that attract support and enthusiasm for the event itself.   Photography exhibits, book signings, speakers, trail running events, movie nights at the local theater, all revolving around the themes of our projects and partners.  People come to listen to a speaker or see award winning photography, and leave a little more educated about the individuals and communities we are striving to empower.   Last year’s, speaker and book signing event with Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, helped not only inspire donations, but allowed the audience to ask questions and further their understanding on the importance of girls education in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Without that event, we wouldn’t have raised over $105,000 in donations in a little under seven months.  Sponsorship totaled around $30,000 for several events in the same time period.

The downside is the cost of putting on events, versus more traditional fundraising.  The goal has always been to have our events sponsored entirely versus donations.  In this way, donations can go directly to the project or the partner charity in their entirety.  Photography exhibits are extremely expensive, even when the images are donated by the artists.  Production of the show, opening night costs, and traveling the show to multiple venues is not cheap.

Despite the second tier of fundraising needed, that of sponsorship in addition to donations, the events do make fundraising and the outreach less dull.   A bored supporter is a quiet one.  Entertain, educate, and inspire and your supporters will become vocal proponents of your work and cause.

Field Notes from Gudel, Nepal

Mountain to Mountain’s 2008 goal has been to support the dZi Foundation’s, Revitalize a Village Project in Gudel, Nepal. This project model is changing the lives of thousands of people in some of the most remote Himalayan villages.  The program places control of development projects in the hands of the community from the very beginning, mobilizing leaders and education local villagers to support projects that are sustainable and serve within the existing social framework.

Gudel is located in eastern Nepal and this community is one of the poorest areas in Nepal, and the poorest in the world.

Elevation: Living areas located between 5,000-6000 feet

Population: 5,000

Language: Kulung Rai and Nepali

Primary Occupation: Sustenance farming and portering

Literacy: 61% of total population is illiterate, 75% of women

Average numbers of children per family: 4

Most Prized Possession:
Photographs that they have acquired over the years and keep in dusty journals and show to EVERYONE. They spend hours poring over them.

Field Notes from Gudel – July 2008
Ben Ayers
dZi Foundation Nepal Project Coordinator

We just had a fantastic field visit to the community, and I am very happy with the motivation of the local community members there. We have just completed the formation and training of 7 Parent Teacher Associations – one in each local school. Each school received a 2 day training and, while PTAs may not be a terribly dramatic program by our western standards, this initiative has already had a great impact upon the management of schools and the local investment in education.

We have also begun to survey and design a new drinking water project that will bring clean water to 80 households (about 400 people). This is a fairly significant undertaking as the water will need to be piped in from 3 kilometers away.

The construction process for the new school building in Namlung has begun with the quarrying of rocks and site preparation.

We have also secured funding for a large toilet construction program in Gudel. Our goal is to ensure that there are hygienic toilets in each home and at each school in Gudel – about 600 toilets total. This program is essential, as our baseline data shows a fairly high incidence of what seem to be tapeworm-caused illness and even death that is a direct result of using pig pens as common toilets.

To Go or Not to Go…THAT is the question.

Two weeks have passed since the news of the IRC aid workers being attacked outside of Kabul.  Since then, there have been two more attacks on aid workers, and the news that the US has killed 76 civilians, mostly children in a bombing.

I have been making plans to go to Kabul with a photographer and friend, Tony Di Zinno this October.  One of the main purposes of going is to meet with several Afghan NGO’s to learn firsthand what is needed for the women and children of this war torn country.  There is an amazing and diverse array of NGO’s – those on the ground talk of the lack of control over the mushrooming of organizations and individuals tripping over themselves wanting to help.  We need to have discussions with these organizations and work to find the projects that are most needed and can be accomplished in their current political climate.

One of our meetings is with author, humanitarian, and adventurist, Rory Stewart.  His organization, Turquoise Mountain is dedicated to rebuilding and preserving the historical and cultural fabric of Afghanistan.  Their work ensures that the Afghan culture and traditional art is not lost entirely through the decades of war and occupation.  They have offered help in finding a location in Kabul to host the ‘Views of Afghanistan’ exhibit.

Another meeting is with CU Boulder professor, Wahid Omar and his wife Soraya Omar.  Both are Afghan and are living in Kabul.  We will be staying at their guesthouse while in Kabul and meeting with them regarding their NGO, Afghans 4 Tomorrow.

Additionally, while we are in Kabul, we are hoping to develop our photography exhibit for 2009.  ‘Views of Afghanistan’ unites Western and Afghan photojournalists in a collaborative show to show the many faces of this war torn country, beyond the war and burquas.  I am looking forward to meeting many of the Afghan photographers we are including in this show who are based in Kabul.  We are pursuing the possibility of a student photography project with a group of boys and girls.  Our goal is to take 20 cameras over and work to create a project with a local photojournalist that shows Kabul from the eyes of the youth culture while empowering these children to tell their stories from their own perspective through a new medium.   Some of these photographs would be included in the upcoming exhibit.

While typically the biggest obstacle is the money involved to make a trip like this, in this case, its safety.  As numerous friends forward me New York Times articles highlighting the increase in violence within the country, the question to go is heavily pondered and increasingly dissected.   What is the risk, and what is the benefit of going?  I have a young daughter and that weighs heavily on my decision.  While I don’t put my life in great risk often, my risk/benefit ratio was different pre-Devon than post.

Yet, for the moment, all systems are go.  We are operating as if we will make this trip (funding is still at issue) with the knowledge that things may ‘blow up’ – pardon the pun – and we’ll have reschedule.  Yet, the gut instinct is to go there, find the stories, make the pictures, and meet the people of this incredible country.

As Buddha once said, “Your goal in life is to find your work, and give your whole heart to it.”  And so we go to find that work, and inspire those who support Mountain to Mountain to help us affect positive change in the hearts and minds of these resilient people.