"We will fight them with words not bombs."

                                     "We are warriors for knowledge."

                                                                "Our weapons are our minds."  

                                                                                      "Nothing will stop us. Nothing  can stop us. Not even the violence"

                                                                                                                                              Words from Hazara girls in Kabul, 2022

This is story began in April of 2021, when Timothy Stiven was approached by  a former colleague who knew of an organization, the Samuel Lawrence Foundation. Samuel Lawrence Foundation with the help of Bart Zeigler, connects students to students. He asked if Timothy was interested in connecting with a school in Kabul, Afghanistan. Timothy said yes before he finished asking.

 

The reason Timothy Stiven is a History teacher was because he knew his Great Grandfather, Eileen Murphy's father Ashley Dewitt.    When Timothy was ten, Ashley would tell him about his grandfather, Gabriel DeWitt who had fought in the US Civil War. Even at the age of ten, Timothy realized that history does not happen in textbooks but it happens to all of us.  It is who we are.

                                       And here was an opportunity for my students to participate in history.

 

From April 2021 and ever since, we began meeting with the Learning Academy on Zoom every other week. We talked about the Covid Pandemic, something we were all experiencing  simultaneously.  We shared out favorite authors, subjects we studied and hobbies and talents that we all shared. 

​

We first connected with a learning center in Kabul in April of 2021. After August of 2021, students at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego, CA chose to continue meet with their new friends in Afghanistan. They called their club, Flowers for the Future and Eileen Murphy Foundation was founded to raise funds to keep the Learning Center open.

​

 

After the New York Times did a story on us, a teacher at Victoria Shanghai Academy called and asked to join. Then a private school High Bluff Academy called and invited the girls in Kabul to enroll as distant learners. Funds and grants were received to allow 150 laptops and wifi accounts so the girls in Kabul could continue to study at home. What started with 40 girls has grown to over 400!

​

Distance was meaningless, what bound us was our love for the applied arts and poetry.

Distance is meaningless when we share a common bond of humanity.  

​

​

​

Eileen Murphy Foundation is a Non Profit NGO

 EIN #  87-4690277