Lunch in Afghanistan: Rotary Club of Bigfork hosts international aid speaker Budd MacKenzie

By the time the Rotary Club of Bigfork finished lunch Wednesday, they were 7,000 miles away from their cozy lakeside town. 

Guest speaker Budd MacKenzie transported club members to Afghanistan with words and slides describing the nonprofit organization Trust in Education and its efforts to help the Afghan people.

Sprinkled with photos of light-hearted fundraisers, MacKenzie’s slideshow focused on Trust in Education’s work over the last year. Most important was the creation of computer libraries and educational videos in Dari, a native Afghan language.

Trust in Education used materials from Khan Academy, a website that works with institutions like NASA and MIT to provide free online videos and practice exercises. Lessons cover a range of topics, from math to philosophy, with the goal to provide a free quality education to anyone wanting to learn.

Trust in Education modified the site’s resources to fit the challenge of Afghanistan: no computers, no Internet, no English speakers. The organization not only translated videos, it saved them to flash drives and started establishing computer libraries where students could view them.

“One of the things you evaluate in the work that you do is how long it will last and these videos will last forever,” MacKenzie said.

MacKenzie reported more than 200 videos had been translated and Khan Academy is now building a website for Trust in Education-translated lessons.

MacKenzie detailed the organization’s push for computer libraries. Several were created after the donation of 200 computers but Trust in Education also found an affordable Afghanistan resource. For $145, the organization can buy a desktop and, for a little less than $4000, they can make a library stocked with 15 computers. Six libraries were created in the last two months, all complete with the translated videos.

“This is the most significant contribution we’ve made to education,” MacKenzie said.

Donna Lawson, owner of The Jug Tree and Bigfork Rotary member for 13 years, first booked MacKenzie. She was rotary program director in 2009 when MacKenzie walked into her store. After learning about his organization, Lawson invited him to become part of the rotary schedule.

Last Wednesday marked MacKenzie’s seventh presentation. Lawson said although most members receive TIE newsletters, they prefer MacKenzie’s visits. Advances in women’s education have been one of the most memorable aspects of the annual updates for Lawson. She said each year seems to show more and more girls in MacKenzie’s schoolhouse photos.

“We’ve seen the progression and it’s been a very positive progression,” Lawson said.

MacKenzie’s progress, and Rotary club visits, started years before he lunched in Bigfork. The Californaia lawyer founded Trust in Education in 2004, taking the nonprofit’s name from the acronym TIE. The group of letters represented what MacKenzie wanted his organization to be: a tie between American communities and Afghan villages.

MacKenzie said the nonprofit’s goal is to help rebuild Afghan lives. Part of the effort is practical: Trust in Education worked with other groups to distribute more than 15,000 pieces of clothing around Afghanistan that were knitted across the United States. The organization has built and delivered over 7,000 solar cookers — devices that use sunlight and reflective panels to heat an internal oven.

For MacKenzie, though, education is the focus of Trust in Education. He sees education as a single action that can solve multiple problems and that same view started Trust in Education.

In 2003, MacKenzie discovered philanthropist Greg Mortenson on a Parade magazine cover. He called Mortenson, curious about his work establishing education in the Middle East, and began fundraising $25,000 for a school.

MacKenzie’s efforts eventually raised more than $60,000 and a healthy curiosity. Looking to learn more about Afghanistan, the country where the school was to be built, he read Charlie Wilson’s War. The book chronicles how Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson delegated the CIA hundreds of millions of dollars to fund Afghan freedom fighters, or mujahedeen. 

MacKenzie credits the read with opening his eyes and giving him a stake in the country’s welfare.

“We haven’t been in Afghanistan to help the Afghans, we’ve been there for strategic interests,” MacKenzie said.

He explained that through Charlie Wilson’s War and extended research, he realized Afghanistan has been at war for 35 years. Between Wilson’s funding and the war on terror, MacKenzie said the United States was responsible for 24 of those years.

He founded Trust in Education in 2004 and visited in Afghanistan in 2005. Eager to view the school he fundraised, the founder also confirmed his new cause. MacKenzie, a lawyer with a self-described comfortable lifestyle, was confronted with miserable living conditions.

“It’s one thing to watch poverty on TV. It’s quite another thing to stand in front of somebody who may not have any food that day,” he recalled.

Impoverished conditions, a lack of women’s right and a majority of Afghans calling for peace drove MacKenzie and Trust in Education forward.

MacKenzie is now a semi-retired lawyer making visits to the country. He spends more time speaking than advising clients, estimating 80 percent of his days go to Trust in Education. MacKenzie speaks where invited, often school and churches, but Rotary clubs around his Bay Area and Bigfork homes are favorites.

Kathy Kusler, outgoing program director for Kalispell’s Noon Rotary Club, said he is a new favorite of the group. They booked him after receiving an email from Trust in Education: Kusler said the organization was interesting and fits with the club’s international fundraising goals.

“We like programs that typically inform us and educate us about things that we may not otherwise hear about,” she said.

Teaching Americans is part of Trust in Education’s focus, according to MacKenzie. He said his time in the U.S. offers a chance to paint an accurate picture of Afghans. MacKenzie spent the past three years writing a book chronicling specific Trust in Education efforts and a larger picture of international work. He hopes to educate and inspire his readers, sparking new long-term aid work. “We do too much patchwork around the world. We need to help one place until they don’t need you anymore,” he said. He sticks to his long-term advice, revisiting the Rotary Club of Bigfork year after year.

For more information on TIE, visit their website at http://www.trustineducation.org/.