Ripton writer shares experiences from working in Afghanistan orphanage

Event Calendar Listing
Tuesday, Nov. 3
4:30 p.m.
Talk title: “Start Again: Rethinking Afghanistan in a Girl’s Orphanage”
Robert A. Jones House ‘59 House, located on Hillcrest Road off College Street (Route 125)
Admission: FREE

Ian Pounds of Ripton, Vt., recently returned from Kabul, Afghanistan, where he lived and volunteered for nearly five months in Mehan Orphanage, one of three run by Afghan Children Education and Care Organization (AFCECO). Isolated in a section of the city otherwise off limits to Western workers, Pounds taught English, drama, photography and computer skills to 180 children. Pounds’ presentation, including stories, music, photos and video, tells a story we’re not likely to hear in the mainstream media. He lived in a house full of girls where he otherwise could not stray outside the gates for fear of kidnapping and bombs; had contact only with Afghans, studied the language and history, and had daily talks with a man who has lived in Kabul through the Soviet era, civil war, Taliban and the present war.

The lecture is sponsored by the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs. For more information contact Assistant Director of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs Charlotte Tate at 802-443-5795 or email tate@middlebury.edu.

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