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Our 9th annual awards ceremony will be held at San Francisco Public Library's Koret Auditorium this year. The April 17th gala event, which begins at 1:30pm, will be emceed by Berkeley publisher and author Malcolm Margolin, and will feature children and youth from around the country who are winners and finalists of this year's contest reading their winning poems about the natural world. The event will also include an art exhibit of River of Words' extraordinary art winners and a cookies and juice reception following the ceremony, as well as a book signing featuring this year's winning young poets and artists. (This is the first time that West Coast fans of River of Words will be able to attend the Award Ceremony, which is usually held at The Library of Congress. Security issues in the nation's capital prompted us to hold the ceremony here for the first time this year.)
River of Words' 2004 Teacher of the Year, Devika Brandt from Greenwood School in Mill Valley, will also receive her award at the ceremony. Other ceremony festivities include a visit from "John Muir," in the person of Frank Helling, who has been impersonating Muir for decades around the country. Sierra musician and songwriter Dan McIlhenny will also perform. Winning art from children around the worldâ€â€Âincluding this year's International Prize, awarded to an Afghan refugee child living in a refugee camp in Pakistanâ€â€Âwill be on display both at the ceremony and in the library's Fisher Children's Center throughout the month.
WHAT: Award Ceremony/Reception/Art Show/Poetry Reading/Booksigning for 9th Annual River of Words International Youth Environmental Poetry and Art Contest
WHO: Malcolm Margolin, emcee
WHEN: Saturday, April 17, 2004, 1:30 PM
WHERE: Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St., SF
(Civic Center BART stop)
COST: Free
NOTE: Wheelchair accessible. American Sign Language interpretation.
School closed in Jaghori (Ghazni) by the Karzai Government
To Whom It May Concern;
Having lived in the U.S. for over twenty years, I have a deep appreciation for civil liberties and greatly value education. I believe that the future of Afghanistan rests on the shoulder of its youth. This is why Nine years ago I collected money from my family and friends to build a school in Afghanistan where I grew up in a small village called Jagoori in the state of Ghazni. While many schools were forcefully closed because the Taliban forbade young girls to go to school, nearly 400 girls attended the Salihi Zeerak High School. For nine years this school has been a success. It has helped over 1100 students to read and write and put 13 students in College or University. After two decades of war and taliban rule, we as Afghans need to encourage our children to go to school and advance themselves. This school has brought hope to those children when there was nothing but war and devastation. It brought hope when there was nothing but a ruined country and broken spirits.
Today there are 1,100 students at the Salihi Zeerak High School; 620 boys and 480 girls, which houses 1st through 12 grades. During the past year, 13 students graduated 12th grade and are now attending either Kabul University or the University of Pakistan. Not only has this school helped kids but it also helped Adults to read and write. There are eighty adult females that come to the morning adult schools as well.
Currently there are 35 teachers, the Principal and Vice Principal. All are high school graduates either from Kabul or Jagoori among those 4 has graduated the University of Kabul. As a result of the Salihi Zeerak High School a second school has also opened, which holds half as many students form 1st through 6th grades.
For the past five years, the taliban has given The Salihi Zeerak High School a permit to operate and the school was considered a government approved school. I have recently learned that the current government of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai has denied a permit to the school, which means the students who graduate cannot attend any University, at all. This school would not be considered an accredited school therefor it would not be recognized by any Universities.
In Summation, Education will give these kids hope and some new appreciation for life, a future that was far from reaching before. We all want the best for our children; these kids are not much different than any of our children. Please help us help Aghanistan. Give these children a chance; please give their school a permit.
303-250-3975
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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The Hazaras of Afghanistan inhabit the central part of Afghanistan known as the Hazarajat or Hazaristan. The Hazarajat consists of valleys, towering rugged mountains, cold winters, beautiful scenery, and raging rivers. The majority of the Hazaras live in the Hazarajat region but due to segregation by former discriminative Afghan regimes, some of the Hazara people live in cities throughout Afghanistan making them the second largest Afghan ethnic group. The destruction of villages and crops caused by the ethnic and religious persecution by the former Taliban forced many Hazaras to live as refugees in near by countries, Iran and Pakistan. 
The Hazaras are one of several ethnic groups of Afghanistan. The Hazaras represent a mixture of Moghol (Mongol) and Turkish similar to that of the Afghan Uzbeks, Turkmans, Ismaeli's and Aimaq-Hazaras. However, they are one of the oldest inhabitants of today's Afghanistan, inhabiting Afghanistan even before the times of the Kushan Dynasty in the 2nd Century. The buddi-Bamiyan's, the Buddha statues carved into cliffs in Bamiyan that were destroyed by the terrorist Taliban in March of 2001, proves this fact with many other historical ruins, artifacts, etc. that lay in Afghanistan. 
They are very brave, strong, peaceful and trustworthy people who have been discriminated and segregated against for more than 200 years in Afghanistan. The estimated population of the Hazara tribe throughout the world is an estimated 6-8 million. They were once the ethnic majority in Afghanistan with an estimated 67% of the country's population before the 19th century. However, due to the blood trusty murderer, Abdur Rahman, who massacred more than 60% of the Hazara population in the 19th century with the help of foreign powers (i.e. British), many Hazaras were forced to segregate to nearby countries and cities in Afghanistan or risked being tortured and killed. But the Hazaras remain brave and strong till this day in the defense for their equal rights, peace, national unity and for the defense of the Hazarajat that they much deserve, after 200+ years, under the discrimination and segregation of former Afghan fundamentalist regimes. Hence, Hizb-e-Wahdat is seeing to it that the harsh history of Afghanistan on it's ethnic groups does not repeat itself, for Afghanistan is a mosaic composed of more than 20 different ethnic groups. These ethnic groups, the Hazaras, the Uzbeks, the Tajiks, the Pashtuns, etc. are what make-up Afghanistan. 