Highlights of 2013

A TIME TO REFLECT ON CHANGES WE’VE MADE TOGETHER

      

Mir Hussain is blind                  Zohra and Lailee embrace a brighter future

 

Just a few years ago, Mir, Zohra and Lailee were “street children” working on the streets of Kabul. They just completed their first year of college. “Street children” know, more than anyone, how crucial to their lives an education is.

Sponsors of street children provide life altering support. If you’d be interested in sponsoring a street child let us know.

TRUST IN EDUCATION’S
TRUST IN EDUCATION PAYS OFF

SCHOOL FOR GIRLS OPENS IN FARZA  

BEFORE: A cold dirt floor

Three years from conception, the school finally opened to 250 girls and 40 boys in September 2013.

AFTER: Desks in a sparkling classroom

 

Built with materials provided by TIE and

100% volunteer village labor, “their school and ours” is TIE’s first partnership with the village. More will follow.

Playground equipment, a soccer field, and additional classes in math, science and computers are on Farza’s 2014 “wish list”.

 

COMPUTERS: A WHOLE NEW WORLD

 During a trip in April we learned that Afghan  schools have computer classes…but no computers. TIE’s now providing as many computer classes as equipment will allow.Will Goldie, a student working on his Boy Scout Eagle Project, introduced us to the Rasberry Pi computer. It’s a credit-card sized computer that costs a mere $40.

He successfully raised $20,000 for his project through Indiegogo and 70 complete computer sets with monitors, cords etc are on their way to Kabul.

SOLAR COOKIT PROGRAM’s COOKING

 

In 2012 we tested over 400 solar cookers in the field. The test was so successful we added 1500 more in 2013. Thousands more will be distributed in 2014. Why?
Solar cookers eliminate smoke, which is responsible for 2 million deaths a year; eliminate expensive firewood and can be used to pasteurize water.
Jack Howell discovered, while drinking coffee, that Peets packages its beans in mylar bags.  That discovery reduced our cost for reflective material to zero.
Volunteers have collected well over 25,000 coffee bags from several Peets stores.  Recycled bags and conversion to a pollution free source of energy that is itself free. Could it get any better?

TIE’S PACKING PARTIES RAMP UP

 

The tons of clothing, blankets, shoes, bedding, medical and school supplies, toys, and stuffed animals that volunteers packed and we delivered to refugee camps in Afghanistan…are too numerous to count.  The shipment currently on its way to Kabul weighs 88,000 pounds.

 In addition, the enriched rice donated by Stop Hunger Now that we packaged, will this year alone provide 500,000 meals during the brutal winter months. 

You ALL are AWESOME!

 For those of you who haven’t joined us at a packing party, you should! They’re actually a lot of fun.

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