Seeds of Peace

• Job:  Student | Columbia University
• Regional Programming: 2003 Conference "Breaking News, Making Headlines," various galas, peace-markets, and fundraisers. 
• Years at Camp: 2002
• Afghan Delegation
• Age: 21

In what ways has your experience at Seeds of Peace impacted you as a person?
Seeds of Peace has made me realize that we are part of a whole that is South Asia and the world, and we certainly have our own role to play. Being kept away from the rest of the world by the Taliban for most of my childhood, I grew up not knowing much about the outside world—in fact, at times I doubted whether such a thing as "an outside world" actually existed. The fact that no international media was allowed in Afghanistan reaffirmed that childhood assumption for me. But in 2002 when Seeds of Peace gave me the opportunity to come out of my shell and meet people from other regions who were dealing with similar issues as I was, I realized how inter-connected our world was, and how we were just a piece that had to work to fit in the larger puzzle.

How does your work or education relate to building a more peaceful world? 
I am a history major, hoping to pursue writing and journalism in the future. Currently, I am doing some oral histories in Afghanistan, recording life stories. This summer, I focused on the effects of war on teaching habits by recording the life-stories of a few teachers in their own words. I see a huge role for oral histories in conflict regions because most times circumstances are not right for an actual, factual history of the happenings to be written immediately after the conflict or violence occurs because of potential dangers. But if the stories of the people who lived the history are recorded and archived, we will have the material to write an actual history when the right time and circumstances come.

In what ways are you still connected to the Seeds community? Do you keep in touch with any Seeds?
I have visited camp twice since 2002, the year I attended. I keep in touch with many of the Seeds from my year, especially Indians and Pakistanis. In fact, I visited one of my Indian Seed friends in Mumbai two summers ago and spent a couple weeks with him. I am very involved in Seeds events in New York, so I see many of the Seeds graduates in the city.