The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

96 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT One alumna, filmmaker Stacia Teele, produced a short film, “Vasila’s Heart,” after meeting Vasila, a young Afghan girl in need of a heart opera- tion. The film aired on ABC. Teele is now in the process of developing a documentary, “Growing Up in Af- ghanistan.” As she says, Afghanistan is “wonderful. Magical. Childhood memories full of close friendships and exciting adventures. Training for the big soccer tournament, surrounded by the majestic mountains of the Hindu Kush; piling into taxis and heading down to Chicken Street or the Green Door Bazaar for shopping without our parents; playing after school with the Afghan children who lived next door; class trips in our yel- low school bus through the Khyber Pass. We had all the elements of a normal childhood: first dates, sleep- overs, long summer days at the pool, school plays, proms ... lived out in the bosom of an incredibly exotic, spiritu- al and thriving culture ... [We felt wel- comed] by our host country, Afghani- stan.” The documentary will tell the sto- ries of Afghans who fled to Ameri- ca, those who stayed in Afghani- stan, and the alumni of the American International School of Kabul who lived there during the “Golden Age” of the 1960s and 1970s. The effort includes Advocates for Afghani- stan, a grass-roots organization found- ed by the alumni of the American International School of Kabul (www.aisk.org/portal.php). Dawn Erickson is a co-founder of Advocates for Afghanistan (www. advocatesforafghanistan.net) w ith Marnie Gustavson, Anne Payson & Stacia Teele — all AISK alumni. Their projects include the Qarabagh School Project and fundraising for Vasila’s heart surgery. Dawn is also involved in the Hayward Ghazni Sister City Formation Committee, organized by Bay Area community members and Afghan-Americans. Their endeavors include sponsoring pen-pal projects; raising funds for a Widow’s Literacy project that will help 30 widows and other women in a one-year, 3rd-grade-level education program; and assisting the Afghan Continued from page 95 “The desire to give to the communities that I have lived in has been one that started in my youth and continues.” — Dawn Erickson