Afghani children benefit from generous donation

Courtesy photo Lt. Col. Dallas Plumley distributed 225 pairs of shoes to children at the Ashiani Orphanage in Afghanistan.

charles.schartung@knox.army.mil

What do 225 kids in Afghanistan have in common with Fort Knox Girl Scout Troop 464 and the children at Kingsolver Elementary?

Nikes and Reeboks, mostly.

That's because 225 needy Afghani children are sporting new and slightly-used shoes as gifts from children at Kingsolver who, with the help of Troop 464, turned a Girl Scout project and a class discussion in good citizenship into a trans-continental connection.

"A couple of months ago the class and I were working on a social studies lesson about good citizenship," explained Debbie Ratchford, a third grade teacher at Kingsolver.

Courtney Plumley, a student in Ratchford's class, mentioned that her sister Kelly's Girl Scout project was to send shoes to Afghanistan.

A Girl Scout project that originated on Thinking Day, when Girl Scouts around the world celebrate Girl Scouts and Girl Guides by learning about girls in other countries.

"Kelly chose Afghanistan because I'm deployed there," said Dallas Plumley. Courtney's father, who's stationed in Kabul, working on revamping its National Guard, "and I had been sending her and her troop a lot of digital photos and information on how the country and people needed help.

"My wife, Lee Ann, and I discussed a lot of options. I wanted them (daughters Courtney and Kelly) to have the opportunity to help make a difference in this impoverished country. Collecting shoes and sending them to me for distribution in Afghanistan to a school or orphange seemed the best choice."

When Ratchford's class got wind of the project the students dived in, asking everyone they knew to work on it.

"From there we went about collecting shoes. As a group we decided to put up posters and start a shoe drive," said Ratchford, "and it just took off."

After collecting the shoes, everybody from the school's secretary to parents at a PTO function chipped in for the $130 needed to ship them.

"On average, the shoes took about four weeks to make it to Afghanistan," said Dallas. "That's when the interesting part began."

The interesting part was searching for a good home for the shoes. In a country torn apart by years of tyranny and oppression, how is the decision made as to who needs help the most?

"I started asking my interpreter for a suggestion," said Dallas. "He mentioned an orphanage nearby."

The Ashiani orphanage houses about 2,500 students and is one of six throughout the city of Kabul, said Dallas. The orphanage focuses on providing literacy (the literacy rate in Afghanistan is about 70 percent) and vocational training to the students.

"When asked what the school's needs were, they focused on educational supplies, food, vocational (craft) materials, medicines, and financial help," said Dallas.

That included the basic material to simply live. While the Afghani children were "very appreciative" of the shoes they received, said Dallas, the American children got something in return.

"All the children in the building took part," said Ratchford, about the students at Kingsolver. "They wanted to help. They wanted to make a difference."

Or in the words of Courtney Plumley, "We had fun!"