How is he able to succeed when so many have failed?
"Success in Afghanistan," Mortenson says, will come "when the people themselves can determine their own destiny.
"We need to put more emphasis on empowering Afghans, which means involving them in the process. You have to get buy-in from the people themselves."
He learned that philosophy from his father, who started a hospital in Tanzania and ultimately got fired for insisting that all departments should be run by Africans. Today they are.
Mortenson puts that philosophy to work in Afghanistan, working with shuras (groups of elders). Their deepest wish is to be free from coercion, by Taliban or corrupt central government officials, and to be able to improve their lives. Prime among their concerns is educating their children. If local mullahs are resistant to approving girls' education, they can usually be convinced over more cups of tea.
"We put our schools in areas where there are no schools at all," Mortenson told me. As we talked in my office, he took a cell phone call from an intrepid Afghan staffer, Sarfraz Khan, who was checking in from Badakshan province, high in the Hindu Kush mountains.
"When we build our schools," he continued, "the community has to provide free land, free labor, sweat equity, and the elders are in charge." Mortenson's Central Asia Institute (www.ikat.org) pays for most of the building materials, and often for teachers.
Once a school is built, the community protects it, and neighboring villages seek their own schools. The institute also helps villagers start income-generating projects to pay teachers' salaries if the government won't.
His staff then tells local government officials they will do more projects in the area, provided the officials also commit themselves to constructing schools.
