Terry Welch, who is serving as an Army public affairs specialist in Afghanistan, has a very reasonable request. He says that what Afghan children want, more than anything, are pens. Pens are cheap. Below the fold is his letter, including a link to OfficeMax and his address.
As many of you know, I am currently in the apolitical position of Army public affairs specialist in Afghanistan. I only recently arrived, after waiting for 2.5 months at Ft. Riley, Kansas, but that’s another issue. I’m writing you all today because I’m going to take many of you up on your offers and rudely ask a favor of those who made no offer.
When I first mentioned on my blog that I was going to be deployed, a large number of you asked how you could help me, what I would need for Afghanistan. The truth is, there’s not much. However, I just went on my first mission with a civil affairs group and found a way you might be able to help me out.
It seems that the children of Afghanistan want nothing more than they want a pen.
It was explained to me that the villages through which I traveled (near Kandahar, where I’m based) are so poor that a pen is like a scholarship to these children. They desperately want to learn but, without a pen, they simply won’t. It’s a long story. I won’t bore you with it. Trust me, though, when I say that it would be a big deal if even a few of you could put up the call for pens for me. Anyone interested in helping out could either send some directly to me or go to these sites and send them, where you can find them for as cheap as $.89 a dozen.
You can send them to me at this address:
Terry L. Welch
105th MPAD
Kandahar Public Affairs Office
APO AE 09355
UPDATE: OfficeMax requires a phone number for the recipient to place an order. Any phone number will work.
{ 20 comments }
Nat Whilk 05.12.04 at 9:00 pm
Along similar lines, but perhaps involving a larger financial commitment, is participating in Operation Iraqi Children. (Sorry if this has already been mentioned.)
paul 05.12.04 at 9:42 pm
So what’s the long story? I want to know: do we have Spc Welch’s website address?
Ted Barlow 05.12.04 at 9:47 pm
He used to write Nitpicker (http://nitpicker.blogspot.com/) until he was called up, then he passed the reigns over to someone else. I don’t think that the long story is available anywhere, but I’ll see if we can get it out of him.
jacob 05.12.04 at 10:09 pm
I’m sorry to sound churlish, but this request strikes me as a bit strange. An American government officer is asking for us to buy pens for Afghan children for him to distribute? Isn’t this the sort of thing the US government, with its vaunted commitment to Afghanistan, should be doing?
paul 05.12.04 at 10:22 pm
Jacob,
Ever worked in a government bureaucracy? It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that all the money and resources at Spc Welch’s command is allocated to everything but the stuff Afghans actually want.
nick 05.12.04 at 10:26 pm
Isn’t this the sort of thing the US government, with its vaunted commitment to Afghanistan, should be doing?
The pen budget was in the $700m for Afghanistan that Bush expropriated to use on Iraq.
But this is a grassroots thing, and deserves supporting.
J. Michael Neal 05.12.04 at 10:38 pm
A shipment of pens is on its way.
Andrew Chase 05.12.04 at 10:41 pm
Can someone please explain how to enter the address given in the format required by officemax. I’m a bit confused about city/state etc.
Ted Barlow 05.12.04 at 11:03 pm
Andrew,
Use “APO” as the city, and select “Armed Forces” for the state. Use any phone number you like.
Barry 05.13.04 at 12:18 am
Ted, if you have contact with him:
If he needs more pens, I can order them tomorrow. If he’s pen-saturated, and has other needs, just post them here, and I’ll get some of that for him.
Terry 05.13.04 at 6:05 am
Ted,
It turns out that I can post here. I just want to thank everyone who’s helping out.
SSG Terry Welch
Terry 05.13.04 at 6:10 am
Ted,
It turns out that I can post here. I just want to thank everyone who’s helping out.
And I’m sorry for the confusion. PA specialist is my title. My rank is Staff Sergeant.
Also for those who want the full story, it’s not really long, so much as complicated and impolitic and tied into Afghan cultural issues that civil affairs, not us Army journalist types, will have to deal with. I apologize for being vague, but, without sending this whole note up to HQ for approval, I have to be.
Thanks again. I’ll try to send you all some photos of the children with their pens. Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you choose.
SSG Terry Welch
Barry 05.13.04 at 12:07 pm
Terry, would books help, as well?
I work at a university, so I can scarf up some used textbooks.
Terry 05.13.04 at 1:41 pm
Barry,
I’m still a little green here, so I don’t know. However, I’d be willing to bet that, at this point, doing whatever we can to get the childhood literacy rate up would help. I sat in the home of the leader of a local village the other day and he told us that he and four others were the only ones who could read.
That being said, I appreciate the offer, but think we might want to let those who are more fluent in Afghan culture help them with the books. There is much I don’t know about the culture and the last thing I would want to do would be to offend anyone accidentally by handing them culturally inappropriate textbooks.
Thanks again, though.
ladygoat 05.13.04 at 2:51 pm
Would pencils do? Being more environmentally-friendy and all. Or are pens what they want?
Kay Bear 05.13.04 at 3:02 pm
Afghani kids begging for ballpoint pens isn’t unique. Anywhere I’ve ever travelled, kids beg for ballpoint pens. Experienced travellers realize that the ballpoint pens are a “beggar’s currency” which can be traded for candy or whatever toy the kids want. Any pens sent by soft-hearted Americans will just wind up
in a vendor’s stall in a local bazaar!
Kay Bear 05.13.04 at 3:03 pm
Afghani kids begging for ballpoint pens isn’t unique. Anywhere I’ve ever travelled, kids beg for ballpoint pens. Experienced travellers realize that the ballpoint pens are a “beggar’s currency” which can be traded for candy or whatever toy the kids want. Any pens sent by soft-hearted Americans will just wind up
in a vendor’s stall in a local bazaar!
Otis Noman 05.13.04 at 4:16 pm
…the ballpoint pens are a “beggar’s currency†which can be traded for candy or whatever toy the kids want. Any pens sent by soft-hearted Americans will just wind up in a vendor’s stall in a local bazaar!
That’s not such a bad thing — imagine being a kid without the odd treat. Maybe not quite as important as the pen, but still part of being a kid…
Barry 05.14.04 at 2:31 am
A shipment is on the way. Terry, if you find out about books soon, just have Ted post it on Crooked Timber.
tk 05.16.04 at 6:50 pm
you can get pens for cheap on ebay. no guarantee on quality, of course. one of the sellers quoted me a price of $217 or $117 for 2500 pens, depending on shipping. also $49 or $36 for 500 pens.
this guy says he has about 200,000 pens, by the way.
http://tinyurl.com/3gowz
Terry, how long are you going to be there?
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