In defence of Dr Grek   June 2011

Greg Mortenson is a former mountaineer, philanthropist and founder of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), which focuses on building schools, especially for girls, in secluded areas of Gilgit-Baltistan. Mortenson detailed his experiences in two books, the first of which, Three Cups of Tea (2006), became wildly popular. In April, however, Mortenson came under criticism from the media over alleged inaccuracies in the books and irregularity in the running of CAI. In a recent conversation with Himal Southasian, Senge Hasnan Sering, who runs the Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies in Washington, DC, says that with zero government support for education, especially for girls, and with NGOs struggling to keep schools running, Mortenson’s effort was of significant importance.

18 miles to Korphe: Porters carrying materials for the construction of a new CAI school

Tell us about your experience in areas where Greg Mortenson’s Central Asian Institute has built schools.
I have visited the valleys where Greg Mortenson – or Dr Grek, as he is respectfully known in Baltistan – started schools for girls. For instance, he was the first to start a girls’ school in Braldo and today, 16 years later, his schools remain the only institutions providing education to the girls in this valley. During this time, the government was able to construct a few primary schools for boys, but failed to shoulder the educational needs of the girls.

According to a 1997 World Bank survey, female literacy in Gilgit-Baltistan was just 3.5 percent, and most of these students come from the Gilgit, Skardo and Hunza urban centres. In villages, this number is close to nil. The government has yet to conduct a credible literacy survey in the region to assess female literacy. In most of the valleys, government has failed to establish girls’ schools for the past last six decades. In the mid-1990s, I helped to establish the first girls’ school in the village of Yulskyil, but it has yet to be recognised by the government. Starting from Ngyali village along the Shigar River to the last village of Arindo – an area of approximately 30,000 people – the Yulskyil School remains the only school available for local girls.

What has been the involvement of NGOs in the education sector in this area?
Both the federal and regional governments encourage the involvement of NGOs in all kinds of projects, including education. They are happy that someone else is doing their job and that the international community is paying for it. In addition to the Central Asia Institute, there are many other NGOs that are active in providing educational services in Gilgit-Baltistan; there are also hundreds of religious and secular madrassas run with financial support from Iran and various Arab countries. NGO-based modern schools are very important, as the government has no funds with which to pay for teachers. At the moment, there is one government degree college for the entire half-million population of Baltistan, and that college has only 25 teachers.

What was your initial reaction to Mortenson’s books?
In reading through Mortenson’s writings, I have felt a mixture of nostalgia and optimism. The dismal picture that he draws with regards to the socio-economic condition of Gilgit-Baltistan is very true, and he is right in mentioning the growing desire among local children to join schools and receive quality education. Mortenson’s image of a child using a stick to write in the dirt is actually the story of most children in the far-flung valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan – I remember doing so myself as a child. Indeed, there are so many stories in his books that are just like the situation in my village that I have never felt the need to challenge Mortenson over his writings. Through his books, tens of thousands of people have been able to connect with the poor in this remote region, and ordinary Americans have been able to learn about Gilgit-Baltistan. Although President Asif Ali Zardari signed the empowerment and self-governance ordinance of 2009 for Gilgit-Baltistan, it was Mortenson who was bringing about self-empowerment for the people, especially women, of the region. He was teaching them about self-reliance through the arts of reading and writing.

What is your reaction to the allegations that have been made against Mortenson and the CAI?
Naturally, the issue has hurt the credibility of private organisations and their ability to garner funds. The damage to Mortenson’s credibility will cost him in terms of donations for future projects. The most affected from Mortenson’s all, however, will be the girls of Gilgit-Baltistan, Wakhan and Badakhshan. I am disheartened from the emerging stories.

For me, the issue is not whether he established the first school in Korphe, Askole, Hushe or Khane, or whether he built 160 schools or fewer. Most American cannot even locate Gilgit-Baltistan on a map, so should we really be getting stuck on whether or not he ‘stumbled’ into Korphe or Hushe? More importantly, we should realise that wherever he went, he saw the urgent need of building schools for girls. What we need to realise is the fact that, in the post-Mortenson scenario, the girls of these villages will once again end up with no schools and no education.

The government’s apathy towards the poor people of Gilgit-Baltistan runs so deep that even a high-profile figure such as Mortenson failed to convince the authorities over a period of twenty years to establish a female school in, for instance, the Braldo valley. In an area such as Baltistan, where female literacy rates remain at less than five percent, the addition of even one school through Mortenson’s personal efforts earns him the credit that he deserves. The media report that first brought up these allegations also failed to raise the issue of the Pakistan government’s role in undermining Mortenson’s authority over the assets that he built for the students free of cost.

In my opinion, he was dependent on a corrupt system that insulted and abused his good intentions – the risk that he took led him to start more schools for girls than the total number of girls’ schools constructed by other NGOs and government’s Education Department put together. Mortenson delegated authority to the locals. Maybe he was a bad supervisor, as many claim, or maybe he did not want to micro-manage chores the way most people do. It is unfortunate that his manager is alleged to have rented out some student hostels and school buildings without his permission, but the fact of the matter is that the Pakistani bureaucracy failed to provide the safety net to help Mortenson regain control over these assets. He took the risk of letting locals take advantage of him, but then he educated thousands of girls.
 
There has been criticism that Mortenson and the CAI were agents of ‘Western imperialism’. What is your reaction to this?
Those who accuse Mortenson of this role fail to realise that China, the Asian imperial power, entered Gilgit-Baltistan during the late 1970s, at which time the Pakistani authorities welcomed its arrival. That was an imperialistic move two decades before Mortenson arrived. The Chinese built the Karakoram Highway to access the Indian Ocean, and now Beijing is spending billions of dollars in laying a rail link to Iran and Afghanistan that will pass through Gilgit-Baltistan. But what is more important to realise is the fact that China has stayed away from investing in education or health projects, and this compels someone like me to deduce that the Chinese influence is self-centred – its presence is not aimed at the betterment of the common people, but rather at advancing her own strategic interests.

Many extremists are not happy that girls in Gilgit-Baltistan are receiving modern education. They want to engage people in sectarian and targeted killings, and promote religious hatred. The fact that secularism and modern values will bring Muslims and non-Muslims together threatens Pakistan’s very ideology of creation. The fact that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan share ethnicity and linguistic connections with those in Ladakh, Tibet and Kashmir, rather than with the Punjabis and Pathans of Pakistan, is alarming for those who still harp on the ‘two-nation theory’ and resist cross-Line of Control cultural and family ties. These are the same people who, until 9/11, used Gilgit-Baltistan as a safe haven and training camp to promote militancy in India. For many years, hundreds of terrorists resided in different parts of Skardu, Gilgit, Diamir, Astor and Ghanchi districts. In my opinion, people such as Mortenson become scapegoats to fulfil goals of those who resist social change.
 
Have you had any personal interaction with Mortenson or any association with his institute?
I have visited the villages where CAI started some of its girls’ schools. People there have a high regard for Mortenson and his work. They have expressed some reservations regarding the behaviour and practices of his local team, but have never challenged or questioned Mortenson’s intentions. I have never met Mortenson in person; he preferred to work on the left bank of the Shigar River while I lived on the opposite side. Our NGO team requested Mortenson to initiate schools on our side of the valley, as the government had refused to support our girls’ school. However, Mortenson had his hands full and could not support us at the time. I can understand his situation: everywhere he went, people wanted him to start a girls’ school in their village.
 
At this point, what has been the impact of Mortenson’s work?
His work has helped to enhance female literacy in this area. In most of these villages, he was the first to introduce modern education for girls. His NGO was unique in that it focused on girls, who, as educated mothers, can lay a foundation for a sustainable family; and he understood that concept well. He also encouraged other mountaineers not only to love the mountains but to engage in social work and to connect to the local communities. His schools helped to create jobs, increase tourism to the region, and changed the idea that people had about America being an enemy of Islam and Muslims. It also helped Americans to understand the poor conditions in which the natives of Gilgit-Baltistan live. The selfless notion that thousands of children in the US had strived to collect money to support educational needs of girls in far-off places such as Gilgit-Baltistan, Wakhan and Badakhshan – that is something that I will never stop admiring.

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