Books -- Humanitarian will give presentations in area
Staff report
Humanitarian
Greg Mortenson, a Minnesota native, and founder of nonprofit Central Asia
Institute, will give a presentation and sign his book, "Three Cups of Tea:
One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time," at 2 p.m. Jan.
27 at Rochester Public Library.
He also will
appear at a 9:45 a.m. adult class Jan. 28 at
Both events
are free and open to the public.
Since a 1993
climb of dangerous
Mortenson is
the brother-in-law of Dean Rauen, a
Since 1993,
Mortenson has established 58 schools, which educate more than 24,000 children
in often volatile regions now considered the front lines of the war on terror.
His work has
not been without risk, he survived an eight-day armed kidnapping in Pakistan's
western tribal region, escaped a 2003 firefight between feuding Afghan
warlords, received fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs for educating girls,
and even received hate mail and death threats from Americans after 9/11 for his
effort to help Muslim children.
Mortenson,
49, is a military veteran. He says educating girls reduces infant mortality,
levels off the population explosion and dramatically improves the quality of
health and life itself.
Mortenson
says a major challenge in his work is the cross-cultural complexity of working
in two different societies. "Americans prefer two-minute football drills
or 30-minute power lunches, but in
Mortenson has
received several awards for his work to promote peace through education,
including a 2006 Red Cross Humanitarian Award, 2004 Jeanette Rankin Peace Award
from the Institute for Peace, Vincent Lombardi Award for Humanitarian Work and
a recent Golden Fleur-de-lis Award for Peace from the City of Florence, Italy.
Also on
Mortenson's schedule is a speaking engagement at 3 p.m. Friday at the Frozen
River Film Festival at Somsen Auditorium at
Three Cups of
Tea http://www.threecupsoftea.com
(c) 2007 Rochester Post Bulletin. All Rights Reserved. Used
With Permission.