Photo courtesy
Greg Mortenson

Greg's 2008
Speaking Tour

Greg Mortenson

One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time

"Laced with drama, danger, romance,and good deeds, Mortenson's story serves as a reminder of the power of a good idea and the strength inherent in one person's passionate determination to perservere against enormous obstacles." —The Christian Science Monitor

After a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, Greg Mortenson was lost and was nursed back to health in a remote Pakistan village. He made a promise to build a school in the village. This true life hero is successfully building schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, Mortenson combines his unique background with his intimate knowledge of the third-world to fight terrorism with books, not bombs, and is successfully bring education and hope to remote villages in central Asia.

As of 2007, Mortenson has established over 61 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 25,000 children, including 14,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before.

Mortenson has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs from his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls. He is one of few foreigners who has worked extensively for fifteen years (spending over 65 months) in the region now considered the front lines of the war on terror.

His work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an eight day armed kidnapping in the Northwest Frontier Province NWFP tribal areas of Pakistan, escaped a 2003 firefight with feuding Afghan warlords by hiding for eight hours under putrid animal hides in a truck going to a leather-tanning factory. He has overcome two fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs, endured CIA investigations, and also received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after 9/11, for helping Muslim children with education.

NBC newscaster, Tom Brokaw, calls Mortenson, "one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world."

Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, and the D.C.-based Freedom Forum, says "Mortenson doesn't just climb mountains. He moves them, and through his courage, he gives hope and has changed the lives of thousands of children in a region of turmoil considered the front lines of the war on terror."

Mortenson advocates girls' education as the top priority to promote economic development, peace and prosperity, and says, "you can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won't change".

While not overseas half the year, Mortenson, lives in Bozeman, Montana with his wife, Dr. Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist, and two children.

Greg Mortenson with girls in Pakistan where he has built a school Photo courtesy Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson convenes meeting with Shura (elders), including some Taliban Photo courtesy Greg Mortenson

Multimedia Presentations

• Greg Mortenson on the NBC Nightly News,
  Making a Difference Segment.
• "NOW on the News with Maria Hinojosa" interview with Greg Mortenson on building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Includes MP3 download and transcript.

Other Resources

• One Book, One San Diego - Greg Mortenson's book Three Cups of Tea was chose as the 2008 book to read as a community
• Central Asia Institute - Greg Mortenson's Institute to further his work
• Greg Mortenson's Blog
• Pennies for Peace - Educating American children about the world beyond their experience and shows them that they can make a positive impact on a global scale, one penny at a time.