One Step Closer: FWP land purchase could preserve part of north shore puzzle
In the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War,” small children are shown suffering in Afghanistan refugee camps, their arms and limbs amputated by roadside bombs left by Soviet soldiers.
What Budd Mackenzie sees when he works in Afghanistan isn’t that horrific, but the children are every bit as much in need of help. Mackenzie, who lives in Bigfork during the summer, travels to Afghanistan twice a year to help social justice and improve communities through his organization Trust in Education.
Mackenzie’s organization works to support teachers and schools, to educate children and rebuild the social fabric of Afghanistan. Trust in Education finances 23 teachers working with over 1,000 school children in Afghanistan.
Several years ago Mackenzie noticed an article in Parade magazine about the need for schools and community building in Afghanistan in the wake of 40 years of war brought on by the United States and the Soviet Union.
An attorney, Mackenzie thought to himself “That’s something I could help with.”
For many years the United States financed the arms and training of the mujahedeen, the warriors who fought the Soviet Union. When the Soviets pulled out in 1989, stockpiles of weapons and a war-torn country were left in their wake. Most humanitarian organizations pulled out “almost overnight” in 1992, with one million Afghanis dead from the war, and five million people living as refugees.
As the United States prepares for full withdrawal of troops in 2014, Mackenzie is hoping that humanitarian efforts continue. “Let’s not abandon the Afghans like we did in 1992,” he said. “We should leave. But let’s not abandon.”
Mackenzie has traveled to Afghanistan 16 times over the last several years to develop the infrastructure for his organization, which is based in Kabul.
Working in wealthy California cities, Mackenzie had become tired of the country-club atmosphere of people who didn’t want to affect social change outside their gated communities. As a person who grew up in the 1960s cultural revolution, he said he sees people of his generation now trying to fulfill promises they made — but never got around to keeping.
“We made promises when we were in college,” he said. “People sort of abandoned those values. But they are starting to revisit those values and realize there is more to life than accumulating.”
Building schools and working with children is a way for Mackenzie to assure help is going where it’s needed. “We have to quit looking to Washington for solutions,” he said. “It’s not going to come out of Washington.”
It takes more than just writing a check (although that does help). Mackenzie said people who truly want to help rebuild Afghanistan and help that country’s people could also help by doing “stuff drives,” where communities compile durable household and recreation items, which can be sent free of charge via military airplanes to Afghanistan. Mackenzie’s organization has already sent over 100,000 pounds of goods to Afghanistan, and he’s got several pallets of goods waiting for him in Kabul. He follows the “stuff” overseas, and meets with village leaders to see who needs what. He leaves next month for Afghanistan.
Mackenzie has seen how large aid organizations have become overly bureaucratic and detached from the needs of the people on the ground. The larger organizations like USAID rarely work with small organizations like his. Often the aid is patchwork, with little communication among organizations trying to help.
“People to people aid works,” he said. “Grassroots organizations providing direct aid, over time, works.”
Being a smaller and more nimble organization also helps Trust in Education teach Afghanis that Americans aren’t all bad. “They realize I’m not military,” he said. “I just represent families in the United States who care.”
The journeys to Afghanistan have taught Mackenzie a new way of looking at life; a viewpoint far different from the materialistic one that’s engendered in most Americans. “Other than raising a family, this is the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life,” he said. “I never had a view outside my borders. Now I’m on the outside looking in.”
The United States has financed 22 years of war in Afghanistan, leaving a legacy of devastation. There are other countries to help, too, Mackenzie said, and people need to get off their couches and learn about the world. “We need to be better global citizens,” he said. “I don’t care where you go. Just go.”
On the Web: trustineducation.org