Promoting Peace Through Education: How Stones into Schools is Transforming Afghanistan and Pakistan

John Marshall: Wonderful!

An amazing and inspiring,but humbling story . This book should be compulsory reading in every school in the UK; now.

United Kingdom on Jan 17, 2020

JK: Very inspiring book about developing girls' education in Afghanistan & Pakistan. Despite the controversy surrounding Three Cups of Tea, the book makes a compelling case for promoting girls' education to transform communities.

United Kingdom on Jun 03, 2016

Barbara Jeffery: This man is an inspiration in a world where everyone seems out for himself. I recommend this book and his other one "Three Cups of Tea" and defy anyone not to come away from them feeling better.

Australia on Nov 10, 2014

Suhail Zubaid: The first book on Greg Mortenson's adventure humanitarian work was aptly titled `3 Cups of Tea' after an explanation of a local custom by his Mentor Haji Ali, the chief of Pakistan's northernmost village of Korphe, who had said, "The first time you share tea with a Balti villager you are a stranger; the second cup that you share is an offer of friendship; and the third cup of tea means that you are now part of the family and we can even die for you". This custom is loosely accurate for the rest of Pakistan too.

The second book has been very adequately titled `Stones into Schools' after a former Mujahideen Leader of the northeastern Afghanistan, Commander Sadhar Khan, who once pointing out to the grave stones scattered on a field in thousands explained, "These stones remind of thousands of Afghan children killed since late 70s. Now it is the time to turn the stones into schools". It offers even more of what I call adventure humanitarian work.

Both the books will appeal to readers interested in finding out root cause of the current problem of terrorism, the ways to fight this evil and the ways not to fight this evil. This book continues to be primarily about Greg...

Canada on May 10, 2010

Benjamin W. Pearce: This book and Three Cups of Tea should be required reading for everyone on the planet. Not only is is well written, but its an inspiration to us all of the power of what one man can do. This is a remarkable journey through the authors attempt to educate people in remote villages. Greg Mortenson's approach hinges on a simple idea: that by building secular schools and helping to promote education - particularly for girls- in the world's most volatile war zones, support for the Taliban and Al-Qaida and other exptemist sects will eventually dry up. "If we want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books not bombs." The enemy is ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever. People with options do not become terrorists. The key difference between them becoming a terrorist and a productive local citizen is education.

United States on Feb 21, 2010

C. Cleveland: Greg Mortenson is an obsessive. A good kind of obsessive, obviously. Known as "Dr. Greg" throughout large stretches of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Greg Mortenson was first obsessed with a couple of things: climbing mountains, and his little sister's Christa's courage and determination at living with epilepsy. After her death, Mortenson decides to climb K2 as a final tribute to her, but is distracted by a life-saving errand before he can summit the mountain. On his way back, having failed to fulfill his obsessive need to memorialize his sister, he gets lost and almost dies before meeting the villagers of Korphe, Pakistan, and, before he leaves their company, forms his new obsession. His new obsession, which combines facing insurmountable odds with improving the lives of little girls, is still playing out, and it demonstrates many things, starting with the power of one person to change the world for the better. If American citizens cannot control the expenditure of their tax dollars to make war in Afghanistan, we can at least contribute money to the Central Asia Institute to fund a far more efficient project that spreads the extraordinarily liberating results of basic education for...

United States on Feb 14, 2010

I. Dobson: Stones into Schools picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off. We are taken into Afghanistan and the world of Taliban, nomadic horseman and living conditions that stretch the limits of human endurance. Once again, this is a rolicking adventure tale that will keep you up late at night racing from one chapter to the next to see how it is all going to work out. It is both entertaining and inspirational, and a story of true sacrifice by so many people for the common good. Your preconceived notions of people living in this part of the world will change profoundly as your move through the chapters and Mortenson's writing style is captivating. I have loaned out Three cups of tea so many times now that it is falling apart. I know that this book will meet the same fate. You will want everyone you know to read this book.

Canada on Feb 11, 2010

Dr. Jan B. NewmanDr. Jan B. Newman: I saw that Greg Mortensen had written Stone Into Schools when I traveled through the Salt Lake City airport. I could not wait to get home and order it through Amazon. After reading Three Cups of Tea, I wanted to know what happened afterwards. I wasn't disappointed.

Please Buy this book, and if you haven't read Three Cups of Tea, buy it and read it first  Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time . Stones Into Schools begins where Three Cups of Tea leaves off. Mortensen has helped numerous villages in Himalayan Pakistan build schools.(See my review Three Cups of Tea). He is approached by tribesmen from a literal ends-of-the-earth place in Afghanistan to build them a school so their children can have hope for the future. As what Greg has done filters through the rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, more and more tribal elders approach him and his colleagues to build secular schools throughout the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan where the central governments have all but forgotten the population. (The only education is through Taliban Madrassas.) The elders want their daughters as well as their sons to go to school and...

United States on Dec 25, 2009