'School is the first step to change the world', says Mukhtar Mai, symbol of Pakistani women's struggle for the right to education and life without violence. Totally illiterate not that long ago she has built two village schools in Mirvala, Punjab.

There are very few of us, but we share Mukhtar's view. We work effectively, neither time nor money gets wasted. Just a handful of enthusiasts willing to help others, knowing how comfortable and safe our lives are. We also know that sometimes it is so easy to do that. It can take as little as a phone call to the publisher who happens to feels like getting rid of several tones of books withdrawn from the market. In many cases the books would have ended up in a paper shredder as storing is expensive. So - just a phone call or two. Sometimes more, but still not much sweat.

In 2005, in the short period of less than 6 months we constructed a school ( read project report here ) for almost 300 girls in Afghanistan. Since 2002 we have been helping Afghan schools and universities providing them with teaching materials (mainly English textbooks), stationery as well as with computers, printers and typewriters. All the money donated to us directly goes to help those in need. In 2006 we constructed two school buildings with playgrounds and water tanks, and we sent volunteer teachers to Afghanistan (click here for more details). All of us, including the Board, are volunteers. We use private computers and mobile phones. The office is registered in a private flat in order not to generate unnecessary costs. We send our books to the people we are in touch with. We know their needs.

Last year's Nobel Peace Prize Winner Professor Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh (click her for more & interview) asked how he gained his vision of microcredits answers that he saw and sensed a particular human need and tried to respond. Professor Yunus is convinced that if we do not see something it means that we are not looking for it. We usually see what we want to see. It is much more convenient not to see an elderly neighbour dragging bottles of water upstairs. Professor goes even further stating that if each of us helped 5-10 people get out of poverty very soon it would be turned into a museum piece. Laughable? Naive? Obviously, shrugging one's shoulders or looking down is the easiest way. And many do that. But how many people have they helped? Professor Yunus, thanks to his microcredits helped nearly seven million people not only to get out of poverty, but to take their lives into their own hands. And it is such people who inspire us. Being laughed at does not put us off. We have had quite a bit of it, especially at the beginning :)

How did it all get started?

'It an idea does not seem crazy at the outset there is no hope for it at all', said Albert Einstein some time ago. Obviously we do not want to compare ourselves to Einstein, but it has been like that with us to some extent :)

In 2001 I fairly regularly contributed to the Warsaw Voice weekly magazine. After 11 September working on texts about Afghanistan, Muslim countries and the Holy Koran I talked to ambassadors, lecturers and experts. Equipped with a dictating machine and a notebook I also went to all sorts of public lectures and talks. And that is how I came across a public talk on Ahmad Shah Massud, the legendary Lion of Pandshir, at the Warsaw University.

A six level school for six thousand dollars? Yes, it was possible on a small fraction of the Afghan territory under Massud's control. Despite the war devastating the country for many years Massud was able to mobilize local rural communities which - if they wanted to build a school - had to provide land and labour only.

The beauty and simplicity of the idea were gobsmacking; so little was needed to create something truly valuable. Those schools changed people's lives, especially women's. In Afghanistan under the Taliban only 3% of girls had access to education. In the Pandshir Valley the statistics looked different. Massud was strongly convinced that education is necessary if the country was to change for good (and for the better).

Education helps us understand the world better and changes lives of the whole communities. Here in Poland we know very well that nothing protects one better against brainwashing and manipulation.

An idea, however beautiful, is not enough, though. The solution, in our case, was to set up an association - a group of individuals around a certain idea. After talks with Professor Janusz Danecki and my cousin Magda I decided to find the author of the talk about Massud and presented my idea. What I heard in response: 'Well, but you will have to do everything yourself' was enough. So the first thing was to find some people not only willing to help but also not intimidated by paperwork, courts and piles of documents. I am sure that one day when they happen to be in need somebody will lend a helping hand. Good things we do for others always, although not necessarily instantly, come back to us. In order to do something you've got to start somehow, but once you've started -  click here  for a beautiful and powerful quote from J.W.Goethe. It works :)

At the beginning of 2002 Association Schools for Peace was registered. The Association aims at undertaking, developing, and propagating initiatives, attitudes and actions for the sake of providing education for children and young people from the regions affected by poverty and neglect, who for economic, cultural or political reasons are deprived of on opportunity to learn.

We all work for the Association as volunteers, none of us receives any money at all. All financial support received by the Association is spent on educational and humanitarian aid

The honorary members of our Association are Professor Janusz Danecki (since the very beginning) and Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki (since October 2003).

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions, grateful for all new ideas and contributions,

On behalf of Schools for Peace,

Beata Błaszczyk