Greg Mortenson

“If you educate a boy, you educate an individual, if you educate a girl, you educate a community,” said Greg Mortenson during the opening plenary session of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Forum. Mortenson was one of the speakers during this year’s Forum, held at Concordia March 7 and 8. Local students, academics, and community members filled Memorial Auditorium and filed into overflow seating to hear Mortenson, co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and author of “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time,” share a story that began on a mountain called K2 and led him to build over 67 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“I’m just like any of you. I’m a Minnesota Lutheran, potluck lunches [kind of guy]. I’m a father, husband, veteran, but most of all I’m passionate about education,” Mortenson said. His focus is primarily on education for girls because he considers it vital for the empowerment of a community. Once girls have a literacy rate higher than fifth grade level, there is reduced infant mortality rate and reduced population explosion, Mortenson says. This is coupled with improved quality of health and of life in the community.

A decade ago Mortenson became co-founder of the Central Asia Institute after a mountain climbing incident that left him stranded in a Pakistani village. After receiving care and compassion from the village, he wished to repay his new friends in some way and thought it best to hear from them what they deemed most needed.

“It is more important to listen than to talk,” Mortenson said. He discovered what the village desired the most was a permanent school building. Since then he has met with opposition from the Taliban and other rebels who have closed down 450 girl schools, and Americans who disapprove of his quest to help Muslim children receive education. He has met with members of the Bush administration, Pentagon officials, and peace activists, all who want to contribute to his cause.   

“I’m not trying to support a Western agenda,” Mortenson said of his work. His motivation is based more on what he views as his parental duty, than any type of imperialism. This is the reason that he has turned down U.S. government funding for the Central Asia Institute. Mortenson says that his motivation is his children, who he sacrifices spending time with so that he can help thousands of children abroad. He is hopeful that he will work himself out of a job because no more schools will need to be built, and he remains optimistic about the state of humanity.

“I think all people want peace,” Mortenson said. “I think we need to have courage, we need to have compassion. That’s how the world can be a better place. Leaving a legacy of peace for our children, our grandchildren, begins with literacy and education.”