Journey Of Hope - Fall 2018 Journey of Hope 2018 | Page 19

Your Donations At Work
When building schools, the cost depends
on the number of classrooms being built and
how remote the construction site is. Here is
a glimpse of the average school construction
costs in Tajikistan.
SCHOOL:
Construction Costs (building materials,
roof, labor, transportation, and tax): $35,000
Electricity (wiring and installation): $1,500
Ventilation and heating (pipes for ventilation,
furnaces, and installation):

$3,500

TOTAL: $40,000
TOILET:
Average cost of materials:
$11,730
Average cost of labor:
$1,270
TOTAL: $13,000
Pish Primary School & Toilet
Extreme weather and cold make winters
in Pish village hard. Building a small
school close to the village was essential.
Asad, CAI
Tajikistan's
engineer, visits
the construction
site to monitor
the progress. He
takes a hands-
on approach
climbing on top
of the partly
completed walls.
OLD SCHOOL BUILDING
CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS
IF EDUCATION
IS LIGHT, THEN
WATER IS LIFE
Clean drinking water and toilets in schools are as essential
to education as pencils, books, and teachers, and yet in 2017
UNESCO reported that 31 percent of schools in the world
(about 570 million students) did not have clean water for
drinking and sanitation.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the number of students with
marginal or no drinking water, toilets, or sanitation is even
higher. UNICEF reports that only 46 percent of Afghanistan’s
schools have adequate toilets, and only 48 percent have access
to clean water. Pakistan’s 2017 ‘District Education Rankings’
survey of all Pakistan’s 151 school districts, reported that
over 50 percent of schools lack clean water for drinking or
sanitation.
If education is light, then water is life. 132 million girls in
the world are not in school and one billion people do not have
clean water. The numbers are daunting, but we can change
that, one girl and one glass of clean water at a time.
Clean drinking and washing water is a big incentive for
children to come to school and to retain them. In middle
school, when girls hit puberty, having clean water and
good toilets can significantly lower missing school during
menstruation or even having to drop out of school.
Since inception, CAI has attempted to provide clean water
to schools, most often with a water well or PVC pipe buried
40+ feet deep, from a spring water source in the mountains.
Azma, a young woman who was in the first graduating
class of 12 girls in Khushpak school, in the Wakhan Corridor,
Afghanistan, told CAI “what made a difference for us to
continue our education after middle school was that CAI
helped to build better toilets and provide us a way to get clean
drinking water. If we did not have that we would have to stay
home or stop going to school.” l
Greg Mortenson is co-founder of Central Asia
Institute and Pennies for Peace, a New York Times
best-selling author, veteran, and nurse. Though
he retired from CAI in 2016, Mortenson continues
to write and travel internationally to advocate for
girls’ education and promote women’s rights.
FALL 2018
JOURNEY OF HOPE | 17