By Khalida Sarwari
A Lafayette man who founded a nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid to villages in Afghanistan is giving a series of Bay Area talks about the 12 days he spent in Afghanistan in December.
Budd MacKenzie, founder of Trust in Education and a Lafayette Chamber of Commerce board director, is speaking in Lafayette tonight and in Danville on Tuesday. He gave a lecture in Millbrae last week.
Inspired by an article about writer and humanitarian Greg Mortenson, MacKenzie and a group of neighbors began raising funds in 2003 to help build a school in Lalander, Afghanistan.
That year, MacKenzie founded Trust in Education, a grassroots nonprofit that provides education, health care, economic and reconstruction aid to villages in Afghanistan. MacKenzie said his ultimate goal is to help the Afghan people become self-sustaining.
“It’s the most rewarding thing that I’ve done in my life other than raising a family,” MacKenzie said.
The organization recently opened an office in Kabul, enabling MacKenzie and his staff of three Afghan citizens to provide assistance throughout the year to the poor in Kabul and in outlying villages.
MacKenzie has visited the country 10 times in the last five years, usually once in the spring and again in the fall.
“Every time I go back and every year our ability to help people grows, so for me it’s very exciting,” MacKenzie said. “As the support in the U.S. grows, our capacity and ability to help more Afghans in the villages grows, so every visit is becoming more and more enjoyable.”
On his last journey, he helped distribute buckets of rice and clothing to more than 600 displaced families in Kabul identified by the United Nations.
With the assistance of the Aschiana Foundation, an Afghan-run nonprofit in Kabul that supports street children, Trust in Education created a program in June 2009 that allows families in America to sponsor a child’s education in Kabul for $20 a month through a contract with the children’s parents or guardians stipulating that in return their child must perform well in school.
Aschiana and Trust in Education are also working to set up a computer class in one of the villages surrounding Kabul.
“We have been providing classes inside people’s homes because of the threat of Taliban, but they’re so popular that homes are (too) small. So we provide villages with classrooms,” MacKenzie said.
In the village of Tangi Saidan, MacKenzie and his organization provided its leaders with materials to construct a bridge over a river, saving residents a couple of miles of walking and the discomfort of crossing to the other side, and for the women especially, the embarrassment of lifting their skirts through the process.
As part of his talk tonight, MacKenzie will speak about Trust in Education programs in Afghanistan, President Obama’s troop surge decision, the role of women in Afghanistan, democracy versus non-democracy, and give a prognosis for the country’s future.
The talk, sponsored by the World Affairs Council East Bay chapter, will begin at 7 p.m. at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation at 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd.
On Feb. 2, MacKenzie will give a talk at Crow Canyon Country Club in Danville, followed by a talk on Feb. 11 at the Athenian School in Danville, at the Serbian Church in Moraga on Feb. 16 and at the San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church in Alamo on Feb. 18. On March 4, MacKenzie is slated to appear at the Oakwood Athletic Club in Lafayette, at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga on March 8 and at the Walnut Creek Area Neighbors and Newcomers’ Club on March 10. His last speaking engagement will be May 12 at the Serbian Church in Moraga.