Delivered!!!

Thanks again to all who delivered!  Over $3500 and many hundreds of dollars of school supplies were donated.  On Dec. 1st, my dad had the opportunity to personally deliver the school supplies.  The following is an excerpt of his letter about this experience:

"Today was my best day in Afghanistan.

Today the Payan E Mother School sent a driver to pick me up and take me to the school.  Fawzia and Dr. Metin and a couple of others from their company went in one of their company cars.

At the school, they had the children assembled in the small yard in front of the school holding up big banners that read Thank you Mr. Martin.  The porch of the school served as a stage and we got up on it and people made speeches.  One man, named Sonjar, works for the Afghan Department of Inerior.  He donates most of his government salary to keep the school running.  His wife was also there.  She is the President of the school and she started it under taliban rule.  It started small and has grown to over 1000 students.

Sonjar made a speech and during the speech he held up a picture of Marty in his scout uniform and shouted out "Who is our hero?!" and the children shouted back "Martin!"  In his speech Sonjar said that these children have done nothing wrong.  They have no interest in war or bombs or bullets.  Most of them weren't born yet when the war started.  They want peace and they want an education, and they are the future of Afghanistan.  Fawzia translated his speech for me, and began to cry as she translated, and it made me cry too in front of all the students.  They gave me a tour of the small school, and I couldn't believe they can fit over a thousand kids in it.

After all the speeches, they asked me to make a speech and I told them that Marty was the one who organized all this, as a service project for his Eagle Scout rank, and I briefly told them what the Boy Scouts are.  Then I told him that lots of people helped, and many many more contributed, and that all of them did it of their own free will, out of love for these children.

After all the speeches they began distributing the supplies.  They didn't give out everything in the boxes while we were there, as it would have taken too long.  They did pass out 750 back packs and with the back packs they gave out pencils.  Most of the time I video'd and took pictures but part of the time they asked me to pass things out so a camera man from a local tv station could film me doing it.

One little girl asked me why Marty didn't come to visit the school himself.  I told her that he lives on the other side of the world, and with the amount of money it would have cost to bring him here, we bought all these back packs instead.  Thank you everyone who contributed!"

We're doing great!

Thank you to those who have donated money!  You're generosity is very appreciated and will soon be helping the children of Afghanistan get the education every person deserves!  A special thanks to Mike Jaggi for creating our new Operation Education logo:

Thanks again for all the help so far!  Please be sure to tell your friends about Operation Education!!!

The following is a note from Marty's dad, copied from a facebook discussion thread

Hello to all my friends,
If you are friends of my friends and family, then you are also my friends. 
For security reasons, as well as to not give the appearance of being too proud, I have tried to keep a low profile about my service in Afghanistan. However, here now a cause has come up that is more important than those concerns, so I need to speak up.
I drive some of the streets of Kabul every day on my way to and from work at Kabul International Airport. On the way I pass one of the schools, and often it is while school is either just getting ready to start, or just letting out, so I see first hand the Afghan children on their way to and from school. I see many of them picking through the garbage pile behind one of the near by shops, looking for food. The vast majority of them are very freindly and they smile and wave at us. There is a small minority who appear to hate us and they shout insults at us and make obscene gestures as we pass by. It's not their fault. They are imitating the feelings of their parents, and they regard us as invaders of their home land. They are so uneducated that they don't understand the difference between us and the Soviet invaders of 30 years ago, who committed unspeakable atrocities and left a dearth in the civilation when they left, that allowed the taliban (it's not a type-o, I despise the taliban too much to be willing to capitalize their name) to take over in the 1990's.
About half of the school children we see are girls. They still have to keep their heads coverd, but I think they realize that if the Americans hadn't come, as females they would not be allowed to attend school at all.
Some of my older freinds here in Kabul were members of the ruling class prior to the Soviet invasion, and had to flee Afghanistan to save their lives. They became American citizens, but have now returned to help rebuild their former homeland. They visit the schools and gave me first hand accounts of the sparse conditions there, and their efforts to bring about change were the inspiration for Marty's Eagle project, Operation Education. The school Marty's donations will be sent to has about 1100 students. I will get some pictures of it for the web site, as soon as I am able to get over there and take some. The students have no desks, no chairs, no back packs, no notebooks, no paper, not even pencils. They sit on the floor and are taught by unpaid volunteer teachers, doing the best they can.
When I told one of the leaders about Marty's Eagle project tears came to her eyes and she wanted to have them rename the school after him. I told her that would not be neccessary, please just tell the students this is a gift from America, with love. She wept at that. 
No one needs to make a great sacrifice. If a whole lot of people make a small donation, it will be sufficient. Donated used or new back packs, notebooks, paper and pencils and pens would be greatly appreciated. Donations of money will be used to pay for shipping the donated items to Afghanistan, and any extra will be used to purchase items here in Afghanistan.
Also, please send a link to Operation Education to everybody you know, and invite them to do the same.
I can't thank you enough for anything any of you are willing to do!
love, 


Warren Foster

Thank you for your support in this epic endeavor. Any donations are appreciated and will be an enormous blessing to the students of Payam-e-Mother. We thank you for your generosity, and hope that you will encourage others to make donations, as they are able to.