On Wednesday, the College of Forest Resources and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences hosted a program in Thompson Hall to welcome Lt. Gen. John Bradley and his wife Jan to the Mississippi State University campus.
Bradley and his wife are co-founders of an organization called the Lamia-Afghan Foundation, a non-profit charity which provides school supplies and basic necessities to impoverished children in Afghanistan. Bradley’s presentation “Winning Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan” attracted students as well as faculty to hear about the work Bradley and his wife are doing.
Bradley asked MSU to raise 600 backpacks for the Lamia-Afghan foundation and fill them with school supplies, while these two colleges sponsored the effort. All 600 backpacks purchased by MSU students and faculty are maroon and bear the MSU logo. Once each backpack is filled with the required school supplies, the Air Force will ship the backpacks to Afghanistan, where Bradley and his wife will distribute them to local schools, Bradley said.
Rick Kaminski, associate dean in the College of Forest Resources, helped organize the Bradleys’ visit to campus.
“Our role is the coordination of a venue for Bradley and his wife to tell us about the Lamia-Afghan Foundation,” Kaminski said of the couple’s visit to MSU.
Student organizations and Starkville donors will fill the backpacks with school supplies like paper, pencils, crayons and scissors. Donation drop boxes for specific school supplies are located across campus, and on Saturday, a large donation bin will be placed between the Union and the YMCA building. Before the game begins, fans are encouraged to bring donations to the bin.
Residence halls are also engaging in friendly competition to raise supplies for the Lamia-Afghan Foundation. Ruby Hall and Hurst Hall are competing to see which can collect the most notebook paper and the winning hall’s RAs will have a dinner prepared by the losers.
Currently, the Bradleys are planning several projects as they prepare to return to Afghanistan next month.
The first is the construction of a school in the village of a young girl named Lamia, the namesake of the foundation.
The family is also working on setting up a temporary school facility in a refugee camp, Bradley said.
He said these supplies will help hundreds of children who live in such deep poverty that they even have to share paper and pencils.
Alan Coats, freshman forestry major, was one of the attendees at Wednesday’s presentation.
“I think [this program] is great for both MSU and the Lamia-Afghan Foundation,” Coats said. “Bradley’s work is really inspiring.”
The project is a part of the Maroon Edition program’s events surrounding the summer reading of Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea.”
Mortenson will be on campus on Thursday to speak about his work building schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His lecture “Promoting Peace Through Education” begins at 7 p.m. in the Humphrey Coliseum.
“I have been thrilled to be invited to be a part of the Maroon Edition programs,” Bradley said. “We are thrilled they wanted to have a program to go along with the book reading.”
At the Wednesday presentation, Bradley said he was impressed with Mortenson and his work in the Middle East serving children, especially young girls. Bradley, like Mortenson, wants to give quality education to young girls in a nation where women are disadvantaged.
“I think education is the only thing that can change that kind of culture,” Bradley said.
For more information about the speech, “Promoting Peace Through Education,” call 325-1403.