U.S. Humanitarian Greg Mortenson Receives Pakistan's Highest Civic Award
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Posted by Christine Welter Mar 22, 2009 |
Greg Mortenson, the bestselling author of "Three Cups of Tea", will be honored with the Sitara-e-Pakistan ("Star of Pakistan") for his sixteen-year effort of building schools and promoting rural girls' education. Mortenson (51) will receive the award from Pakistan's President Asaf Ali Zardari in a ceremony in Islamabad on Monday, March 23. Only three foreigners have received
Mortenson co-founded the Central Asia Institute (based in Bozeman, Montana) in 1996, three years after Pakistani villagers helped him recover from an attempt to climb K2. Since then, Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute have built nearly 80 schools in the most isolated regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
While many Pakistanis are angry about the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and the U.S . bombing of Taliban and Al-Quaida strongholds in Pakistan's South Waziristan border region, it is exactly in this volatile area where Mortenson builds schools to bring hope to Pakistan's most vulnerable young girls.
Most recently Greg Mortenson has become an adviser to the U.S. military. After General David Petraeus read "Three Cups of Tea", which recounts the school-building efforts, he recommended it to his staff. “‘When Gen. Petraeus read "Three Cups of Tea", Mortenson says, "he sent me an e-mail with three bullet points of what he’d gleaned from the book: Build relationships, listen more, and have more humility and respect."
Last November Mortenson was invited to the Pentagon for a private meeting with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Earlier this month he was invited to speak to cadets in West Point during a course on counterinsurgency operations. Mortenson, who spent a few years as a medic in the military after high school, might not have dreamed that he would be back as a consultant on how to build stronger relationships with village elders and tribal leaders.
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