I wish to extend my reluctant congratulations to President Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize win.
I would like to say that I believe that the committee got it wrong, however. The Nobel Peace Prize is meant to celebrate someone who has given a great deal and dedicated their life to the advancement of peace and human rights.

Greg Mortenson was a nominee, and it was an utter heartbreak when he didn’t win.
If you are unfamiliar with Greg Mortenson, he is a humanitarian who has dedicated his life to building schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. To him, education is the path to peace and freedom.

He came to the forefront of the American consciousness with his novel Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time. If you have not read it yet, I recommend it highly. You are brought along with him for the highest of highs and the lowest of lows as he struggles to fulfill his promise to one village to build a school for their children. From there, he began to seek out, and was approached by other villages to build schools for their girls, and career centers for their women. Below, he talks about the novel and the process of building relationships in villages
Mortenson is the co-founder of CAI, the Central Asia Institute. It focuses on education–particularly for girls, but not solely. He started with one school in Korfe, Pakistan. CAI’s establishment is better explained here:
I had the incredible experience of meeting Dr. Greg at the National Council for Social Studies conference in Atlanta last month. He is the most humble man I have ever met, and yet you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of his intense love for education and for the people in Central Asia. He does this not for fame and glory, but because he fervently believes in what he is doing. He has placed his life in danger many times over the past decade, but the payoff has been exponential.
Education for girls to at least the fifth grade reduces infant mortality and population explosion, and improves quality of life. In terms of the ever present ‘war on terror’ that people are so focused on in the United States, it can be put this way: young men are less likely to go on jihad if they have an educated mother. [Edited for clarification after advice from someone who spent time in northern Pakistan. Thanks!]
You can donate to CAI with your classrooms using Pennies for Peace, a program made BY and for children who wish to help. Many students have gone on to make their own nonprofit foundations for other purposes.
Or, you can make an individual donation to the organization. The money goes directly to building schools. It costs “$15,000-$20,000 to build a school. $35,000-$50,000 to build a school after to fund it with teachers afterwards.” [source]
Dr. Greg has endangered his life, sold all of his worldly belongings, been reduced to begging for money for other people, and selflessly giving precious time that could be spent with his young family. I honestly believe that it was Mortenson who should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Please donate to CAI. At the very least, sign up for Alima the free newsletter of CAI.
You can purchase both of Mortenson’s books: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time in the adult or young readers version and Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
