Do all that you can to persevere in that which exceeds your perseverance. Persevere in the interruption. Seize in your being that which has seized and broken you.

Alain Badiou

For more on Janet McKenzie and Homage to 9/11, see Friends.

Thanks to the generosity of its donors, the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation is able to support reconstruction primarily in the field of education in Afghanistan.

Wardak Orphans with a New Flock of Sheep
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Rafiq

There are two primary projects for a village in Wardak. The Foundation is purchasing arable land elsewhere to cultivate products for sale. The Schenectady County Library One Book One County program in Schenectady, NY and the Birmingham Unitarian Church, Bloomfield, MI, purchased a flock of sheep to generate income for the orphanage, schools and health clinic. Other outside foundations, organizations and individual pledges support this work.

Arable Land for Orphans
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Rafiq

The Foundation is indebted to its partner NGO, WADAN, for support in its Logar and Wardak projects. To learn more about WADAN, please use the link: Welfare Association for Development of Afghanistan

The Foundation is joining with others in constructing a library in Afghanistan and is indebted to an inspiring American Councils YES student from Bamyan who identified the need to upgrade an existing facility. To accomplish this goal, the Foundation has established a relationship with the Shuhada Organization, an indigenous non-governmental and non-profit organization committed to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan with special emphasis on the empowerment of women and children. Shuhada will be responsible for the entire project, participate in some aspects of fund raising and manage the facility once completed. The governor of Bamyan donated the land in an area slated to become the new bazaar. See Shuhada Organization for more information about this impressive organization.

The Design of the Bamyan Library
Courtesy of Shuhada

This project conforms to the 9/11 Commission Recommendation that guides our work: The United States should rebuild the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope. Where such assistance is provided, it should be identified as coming from the citizens of the United States.

The library will expand the Foundation's activity to a new province and ethnic population.

Sally in Logar in April 2007
Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe Magazine

In Logar, thanks to individual donations and support from charitable organizations, the Foundation is extending water into a room at the school that will serve as a kitchen and constructing a septic system. It provided an annual stipend for teachers' salaries and purchased much needed school supplies.

Finally the Foundation has increased the number of its long-term exchange students. With Dave Edwards, Ted Achilles and Jean Kissell’s help we hope to continue finding qualified students for good private and public schools. Thanks to support from organizations and individuals, our Foundation provides host families, funds necessary travel, insurance, medical, dental, clothing, tutoring, and educational needs and in rare cases pays tuition. These children are the light of our lives. They are also the hope of Afghanistan. “It is this hope, above all, which gives strength to live and continually try new things."
Sally Goodrich

One of the Foundation's Berkshire School students delivered the commencement address at the school’s 100th graduation ceremonies. He is attending a summer residential humanities program at Williams College. Three Foundation children are studying at the Wolfeboro Summer School Camp, Wolfeboro, NH. One is being tutored locally while she conducts college interviews. Another is interning at the Afghan Embassy in Washington. The work he is doing is invaluable. Finally one of our students has been receiving medical treatment since May in Boston and Berkshire County which will be completed in time for enrollment in college in the fall. As Sally has accompanied him, she is late in thanking donors. Please accept our apologies.

The Foundation has had students accepted at Middlebury, Williams, Bates, Mt. Holyoke, Bard at Simons Rock, Beloit, Earlham colleges and St. Lawrence University. We have students attending private secondary schools at Berkshire School, The Taft School (now a Davis Scholar), Emma Willard, Lyndonville Institute, Burr and Burton Academy and The Long Trail School.

We are deeply indebted to the colleges and private schools that have offered full or very generous scholarships to our students and to the donors who make this possible.

These students will return to Afghanistan once their academic programs are completed with skills needed by their country as it continues to grapple with increasingly serious challenges.

Bates College Memorial

The Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation, established after Peter's death on board the second plane to hit the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, until recently worked primarily in the Pashtun provinces of Afghanistan supporting education and addressing the fundamental needs of fragile populations.

As Chair of the Board of Families of September 11th, Peter's father, Don, will continue to work to prevent terrorism while preserving civil liberties in the United States. Don is a trial attorney.

Peter's mother, Sally, directs the work of the Foundation and serves as an advisory board member to Our Voices Together. Sally is a public school administrator.

We are joined by many who believe we can take affirmative steps to fashion a safer, more equitable world. We all share a sense of urgency and purpose.

The brothers, Fos and Pete at the Grand Canyon

2007
December (1)
November (1)
April (1)
March (1)