Area students help those without pens
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English teacher Annette Hale, the club’s faculty sponsor, said the idea for the project came from a report she saw on Ch. 5 which showed Afghani children in desperate need of school supplies, especially ink pens.
“Khandahar children would try to bargain with soldiers, trading cigarettes or anything of value for writing pens,” said Hale. “Many could not attend school because they did not have school supplies.”
She added recent statistics show 5 million girls and 4.3 million Afghan boys below the age of 15 can’t read or write a simple sentence. During the years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan girls over the age of 8 were not even allowed to attend school.
Literary Club member Joseph Reynolds said the project was a worthwhile one. “We really take for granted the blessings we have here in America,” he said. “I’m glad we were able help foster the literary efforts in a different part of the world that’s not as fortunate as us.”
The service project was the first one ever to be completed by the Literary Club, which traditionally sponsors literary events which benefit Motlow students and the community, such as various symposiums and The Mosaic, a literary journal.
To collect the needed ink pens, members of the Literary Club solicited donations from area businesses, individual citizens and their fellow Motlow students. Among the biggest contributors were Wal-Mart and Ch. 5.
Hale noted the club took the pens to Ch. 5 which took them to Fort Campbell, whose soldiers distributed them where needed in Afghanistan. She said she has not yet received word they had been delivered, but when she does Ch. 5 might do a story about the local donation.