Here in New Hampshire, it’s back-to-school time. But according to the World Bank, 72 million kids who aren’t in primary school won’t be learning the Three R’s, or anything else, this year. Those numbers are likely to go even higher given the recent flooding in Pakistan, which destroyed schools along with other infrastructure.

What does this have to do with us? Why should Congress pass the Education for All Act, with so many pressing issues before it? Because universal access to basic education will change the world.

There are plenty of studies correlating the stunning economic, health and social benefits of education in the developing world. Civilian and military leaders across the political spectrum point to the importance of winning hearts and minds in the fight against global terrorism. Many military personnel in Afghanistan are required to read Greg Mortenson’s book, Three Cups of Tea, so they will understand how schools can make the world safer and better. Somewhere in the world, a child who has no access to education may be the very child who could one day cure cancer or solve hunger or perfect renewable energy.

You’ve heard all this before. So let me tell you instead about a man who was tired of hearing it.

Continue reading at the Concord Monitor.

Picture taken and owned by Anya Boyle

The grannies gave us these avocado, two eggs and a huge pumpkin as a gift! We didn’t really even DO anything, I was so touched. People were so, so generous. Of course these are the grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren, so they are just generally amazing people.

(click here to view Monika Dietrich’s album on Facebook)

Jackson Kaguri with Allan in Nyaka, Feb 2010

Recently, I received an email from a man who is producing a documentary about the Nyaka School. He wrote that the basketball court that I raised money to build is one of the only flat surfaces in the Nyaka community and has been a lifesaver for a crippled boy named Allan. The basketball court is the only place where Allan can use his walker and keep up his necessary physical therapy. Last month, I went to see Kaguri while he was in Boston on a book tour. At his reading, he handed out beautiful new brochures for Nyaka, and a photograph of the basketball court was prominently displayed. Jackson told me that all of the big school events, including graduation and school parties, take place on the basketball court.

“Only” is such a deceptive little word. Sometimes it holds us back from doing what we feel we should, but human kindness is never an “only”. Never.

An Indigo store front in beautiful Toronto

Jackson has returned from Toronto. We’re happy to announce that you can buy The Price of Stones in all Indigo stores in Toronto, Canada, and they are autographed.

Do you know of a bookstore that would like to have Jackson sign books, or present a talk?

Global Giving steps up

Global Giving is offering a free copy of the book to people who give $100 or more to Nyaka School. It’s a great way to give to the cause and spread word about it too. Please consider this and suggest it to others who may be looking for ways to make the world a better place.

Jackson signs books in London

My days in London are over for now. Thank you Johnson Mujungu, Eva Turya, and Sharon Shyaka Honnah and her husband Barry Honnah for organizing book signings in London. To all friends of Nyaka, I thank you too all and I am humbled and  blessed to know each of you. The picture was taken by Samira Sawlani as I signed copies at Westfield Mall in London.

He’s off to Canada on Monday, to meet with the Stephen Lewis Foundation. To think that this journey started without shoes or electricity, sharing a pencil with his sister in rural Uganda.

She had some very thoughtful comments concerning the book, which I heartily recommend reading, but what struck me was her comments concerning Jackson:

Talking to Jackson, like selling simple jewelry for BeadforLife, reminded me of how soul-satisfying it is to be in close contact with the source of a nonprofit. Large organizations often lose their founding passion and become a business like many others. Nyaka is small enough that when I donated some birthday money to their work, I got a personal email within 24 hours from Jackson, saying how glad he was to meet me in Concord and thanking me for getting involved in the project.

And you know what? I feel invested, like my small gift might really help a kid make it. I admire some large nonprofits, like Heifer Project and Habitat, but my donations to a place like that seem more likely to keep the lights on in a corporate headquarters than to really touch a life. I get that corporate headquarters need light to do their work. But my soul wants to hear a child laugh with delight when she opens a new notebook in a school in Africa, not hear a fluorescent fixture hum in an office in corporate America.

The entire blog entry was tremendously interesting (I subscribed to it). If you’re an avid reader, please check it out.

The Price of Stones:
Building a School for My Village
By Twesigye Jackson Kaguri with Susan Urbanek Linville
Viking, 271 pp., $25.95

The numbers are staggering but abstract: Uganda, about the size of Oregon, has nearly 2 million orphans, primarily because of HIV/AIDS, which affects nearly one-third of the adult population. There’s nothing abstract about this moving memoir by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, who left a small Ugandan village for a human rights fellowship in the USA. Later, after losing his brother and sister to AIDS, and at the urging of his American-born wife, he founded a school, built stone by stone, for orphans in his homeland. Kaguri, director of development at Michigan State University, shows how much one person can do. —Bob Minzesheimer