As "a tribute to American booksellers, librarians and educators who supported" The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Penguin Group recently built and opened a primary school in Arababshirali, Afghanistan, about 150 miles from Kabul. Penguin worked in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and the U.S. Association for UNHCR. Some 270 students in grades one through six are attending the school. Before it was completed, the students, a third of whom are girls, were taught outside.
Hosseini, who spent some of his childhood in Afghanistan and has lived in the U.S. since age 15, was honored two years ago by the UN Refugee Agency and named a U.S. envoy to UNHCR. He said, "Over the past few years, I have been humbled by the outpouring of empathy and compassion from my readers for the people of my homeland. It is a great honor to me when readers write me to say that they have found a personal connection to Afghanistan and the suffering of its people through my novels. To me, this school is the physical expression of that connection."
Susan Petersen Kennedy, president of Penguin Group (USA), commented: "Changing the world can sometimes start with a single act of kindness. Our hope is that this new school is one of those acts."