Last spring, Bates, Colby and Bowdoin colleges channeled their long-standing rivalry for altruistic purposes. The three schools competed to collect the most books to donate to the Polytechnic University of Kabul, in Afghanistan.

A Bates student, Kabul native Mustafa Basij-Rasikh ’12, launched the project in an effort to restock the university’s library, left critically short of English literature and textbooks.

The book drive collected more than 2,000 books in a variety of disciplines, including math, science, sociology, history, and women and gender studies. Bates raised the most books, with a total of 41 boxes. Colby ranked second with 33 boxes, and Bowdoin came in third with a total of 22 boxes.

Bates alum Chris Robinson ’07 and other friends of the colleges contributed by picking up the tab for shipping costs.

The Polytechnic University of Kabul, the second-largest university in the city, was established in 1963. Like many major institutions in Afghanistan, government inattention, violent conflict and constant upheaval during the past three decades have left the university lacking many basic resources.

“All in all, everyone was incredibly grateful for the donations,” said Basij-Rasikh, “and is looking forward to expand the program if possible.”

Along with the book drive and an initiative supporting land mine victims, Basij-Rasikh worked with Matiullah Amin, an Afghanistan native who is now a junior at Williams College, to found the Afghan Youth Initiative this summer. This nonprofit, non-governmental organization aims to build a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan by empowering today’s youth.

Bates, Colby and Bowdoin have focused their traditional rivalries on a good cause.

The three schools are vying to see which can gather the most donated textbooks for donation to the Polytechnic University of Kabul, in Afghanistan.

Kabul native Mustafa Basij-Rasikh ’12 launched the project with the help of alums from the colleges.

The Polytechnic University of Kabul, the second largest university in the city, was established in 1963. Years of war have left the institution’s facilities damaged and its libraries critically short of English literature and textbooks.

“The shortage is mostly due to much turbulent conflict and constant upheavals over the last three decades,” noted Basij-Rasikh, “but there is also a shortage of government and international attention to the university. Most textbooks date to the 1970s and 1980s.

“It is also now important that the students become better English speakers.”

Bates alum Chris Robinson ’07 and other patrons have promised to pick up the shipping cost if the contest accumulates over 500 books.

Although science textbooks are preferred, any type of book will be appreciated.

Collection boxes are dispersed around campus. Stations are set up in the Chase Hall outside of the bookstore, in Pettengill, Ladd Library and New Commons in the Fireplace Lounge.

Ending Friday, May 28, the drive is sponsored by Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine, Bridges for Peace and the Helen and George Ladd Library. For more information contact this mbasijra@bates.edu.

Two Bates College students have received 2010 Davis Projects for Peace awards to fund development initiatives in Zambia and Afghanistan.

Mustafa Basij-Rasikh, a sophomore from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Chomba Kaluba, senior from Mpika, Zambia, each received a $7,250 grant. The money will support Basij-Rasikh’s project for empowering people disabled by land mines in Afghanistan, and Kaluba’s literary and microfinance programs for development in rural Zambia.
The projects reflect the importance of economic opportunity to a stable society. As Kaluba wrote in his Projects for Peace proposal, “The dissatisfaction of one sector of a society with the unequal access to opportunity and prosperity is always cause for unrest and violence.”

Their projects are among more than 100 initiatives supported by the Projects for Peace program. At the age of 103, founder and philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis funds the program to encourage college students to undertake innovative, meaningful projects that promote peace in the world.

Beginning with the Soviet invasion in 1979, unceasing conflict has made Afghanistan one of the world’s most heavily mined countries. An average of 40 Afghans are killed or maimed by mine explosions each month. Basij-Rasikh, who has witnessed firsthand the devastation wrought by mines, designed a project to help reintegrate mine victims into society.

Click here to view the embedded video.

He will supply tricycles and carts to mine victims, train these individuals to repair and use them, and provide small grants to begin a business. The tricycles will promote independence by affording mobility, and the carts will serve as stands for selling goods such as vegetables, fruit or clothing.

Basij-Rasikh will undertake the work in the provinces of Kabul, Herat, Parwan, Bulkh and Nangarhar. These provinces are home to many of Afghanistan’s disabled people and have many paved roads, which provide easier transportation and a better market for the disabled to sell their goods.

The Davis grant will allow Basij-Rasikh to purchase parts for tricycles and carts, hire assistants and give startup financing for mine victims. As he puts it, “With a little money and a tricycle, a disabled person can start an independent and prosperous life.”

Kaluba also feels a strong personal connection to his project. He seeks to promote peace in rural communities in Zambia through empowerment programs. There are two parts to his project: a microfinancing initiative using livestock and a literacy initiative.

The microfinance element focuses on goats as an income source. Goat meat is popular in Zambia and goats are a good source of income and protein. Goats will be provided to impoverished households and volunteers will teach recipients how to make best use of them. Participants will be required to give the first offspring of their goats to another family in need, form registered associations and establish banking systems.

With formal education out of reach for many Zambians, the second part focuses on improving literacy through the Kachlite Foundation, which Kaluba founded and directs. Volunteers will facilitate study circles with members of the community. Materials for this project will be donated by the Zambian Ministry of Education in Mpika, along with book donations from Maine. The rest of the supplies will be funded by the Davis grant.

This is not Kaluba’s first initiative in these fields. In 2008 he shared a Projects for Peace grant with two other Bates students to create a community garden in Tanzania that offers street children a survival alternative to a pervasive sex-for-food trade. In 2009 Kaluba received a Bates College Philips Fellowship grant supporting a project in Guatemala that promoted the making of salable art to fight poverty.

Bates students have won a Project for Peace award every year since the program’s inception, in 2007. Learn more.

Hosted by the New World Coalition, a Bates student organization that focuses on social justice and community activism, this event is free and open to the public. Following the panel, guests will have an opportunity to converse with the panelists and enjoy refreshments.The organizers see this panel as an effort to offer insights about the situation in Afghanistan. The panel will include three Bates College students, each offering a unique perspective. Jared Golden, a junior from Leeds, is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before coming to Bates. A history and politics major, he returned to Afghanistan last summer to teach school.

Mustafa Basij-Rasikh, a sophomore majoring in politics and economics, came to Bates from Kabul, Afghanistan. He is one of several siblings studying in the U.S. who plan to return to Afghanistan to help restore their war-torn nation. Their supporters include Sally and Don Goodrich, whose son Peter, a member of the Bates class of 1989, died in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The panel will also include Bates College politics professor Eric Hooglund. Hooglund’s background includes 30 years of research, teaching and writing about the domestic politics and international relations of countries in the Middle East, particularly Iran, and of U.S. foreign policy toward the region.

Hooglund sees his classroom as a forum in which students can confront stereotypes of a region too often portrayed, especially in the media, as a potentially threatening monolith.

The fifth member of the panel is Mark Roman, who was a founding member of Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice and is a member of CODEPINK Maine, the state branch of a national peace and social justice movement. Roman’s particular interest is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the conflict.