When: May 11, 2012
Where: Lafayette Veterans Memorial Hall
3780 Mt. Diablo Blvd, Lafayette
Time: 6:30 – 7:30 Silent auction, Drinks & Appetizers
7:30 Program Starts
Donation: Adults $60 Students $30

Call 925.299.2010 for tickets or email us: trustineducation@gmail.com or click below for PayPal.

Ticket Options

Adult Ticket $60.00 USD Student Ticket $30.00 USD 2 Adult Tickets $120.00 USD 2 Student Tickets $60.00 USD 3 Adult Tickets $180.00 USD 4 Adult Tickets $240.00 USD

Mark Lundholm will rock the house! Guaranteed!!

“A younger George Carlin”
Contra-Costa Times

“Riveting…Dark and Funny”
New York Times

“Funny. Cannily rendered.. comic precision”
The San Francisco Chronicle

Performed in all 50 states and 10 foreign countries, and on Comedy Central, Showtime, A&E, NBC, and CBS.

Most importantly, Mark loves TIE and the work we do. He’s family. That is why he has set aside time in his full schedule to be with us.

It is still freezing in Afghanistan and we are still distributing our supplies. Here are the latest pictures of the supplies being unloaded and the happy recipients. Please note..these men have no gloves!

Clandestinely Yours,

Lauren

Unloading

Neelab, Farida and Najeela Getting Warmer

Rice for Refugees

There is considerable debate among aid organizations regarding what to do with the estimated 35,000 people living in refugee camps in Kabul. They are victims of what one author described as a “pitiless Catch-22 policy” established by international humanitarian aid providers” (click HERE for New York Times article). The World Food program stopped providing food to the camps last year.  What’s the catch? I’ve extracted some information from the article to save you some time.

The camps do not qualify for development aid because they are viewed as temporary facilities– and many Afghan officials oppose their presence. On the other hand, because the camps have been in a state of “chronic emergency” for a long time, most aid donors view that, as, by definition, no longer a humanitarian crisis. “People seem to think you can’t call it an emergency if it has been going on for 10 years, but it is, said Julie Bara of Solidarities International, a French aid organization.”

While the debate waged on, the refugee families just endured the coldest January in 20 years. Most nights dropped below 20 degrees. Not everyone survived. Over 22 children living in the camps in Kabul died last month. According to a recent survey taken, one out of every seven children living in the Kabul camps will not survive until his or her sixth birthday.

Pictured above and below are buckets of rice donated by Stop Hunger Now and packed by TIE volunteers, that were distributed last week to children selected by TIE’s teachers. They chose students coming from the poorest families living in their villages. It’s not easy selecting the poorest among the poor in the 7th poorest country in the world.  Our teachers disappoint more than they please in this process.

This week we will be distributing rice and clothing to several hundred families living in refugee
camps in Kabul and to the 76 street children’s families sponsored through TIE. It’s not difficult to know where we come down in the debate. Surely there must be a solution to eliminating the camps that does not allow children to starve and freeze to death.

Thanks again to all of you who donated and packed the rice and clothing. Yes, we will have another packing party, sometime in June. Date, place and time to be announced later. Plan your clothing drives for May. According to Stop Hunger Now, there will also be more rice to pack.
Sitting in my heated office I remain, ever more grateful,

Budd

ps This last 30,000 pound plus shipment through the Denton program included enough rice for 120,000 meals for over 850 families. Using an average of 8 members per family that’s over 6,600 people! Our reach continues to grow thanks to an ever increasing number of supporters. Join us! In the war for hearts and minds you can’t beat people to people exchanges.

Meri

Wish List  2012

• Additional teacher                           $1310 year
• Supplies per class                             $300   year
• Computer class                                  $3000 1^st year
• English class                                     $1500 year
• Advanced English program           $5000 year
• Desks per class                                 $1500
• Desks per school                              $15000
• Soccer team                                        $750  year
• Soccer field                                         $1500
• Playground equipment                    $1500
• Volleyball court                                  $300

These are some of the items that the Afghan villagers have decided are their priorities for 2012. If you are interested in funding one of them, let us know!  Call 925 299 2010 x2 email meri  (at) trustineducation (dot) org.  We want to help you make some dreams come true for Afghan families.

Michelle Toy and Brent Cannon of NBC interview Budd about the work of Trust in Education in spring of 2008.
Though several years old, this Emmy-nominated video does a great job of showing why the work of Trust in Education is so important .

More than 30 volunteers from Trust in Education formed a bucket brigade to pack 20,000 packages of rice–that is worth 120,000 meals–to send to Afghanistan. These enthusiastic volunteers packed 800 buckets in 2 hours–a new record! The meals, donated by Stop Hunger Now, will be send to Afghanistan through the Denton Program. In Kabul, our program staff will distribute them to families of street children, the poor in the villages where we work, and in refugee camps (for internally displaced persons.) This food will make life easier through the brutal Afghan winters. Thanks to Channel 7 news for covering this event, and to all the volunteers who helped!

Our solar ovens have arrived in Kabul! Trust in Education gathered leaders from camps of “Internally Displaced Persons” (refugees) to teach them how to cook using solar and give them a few ovens to try out. We will let you know how it goes….Thanks to all the volunteers who built the ovens!