NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Author Greg Mortenson spoke to a packed crowd about the importance of educating women in Afghanistan and Pakistan at Vanderbilt University's Langford Auditorium Wednesday.
Mortenson's book Three Cups of Tea, One Man's Mission to Promote Peace - One School at a Time details his efforts to build schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His non-profit organization, the Central Asia Institute, has helped build 131 schools in those countries, each of them with a special emphasis on the education of girls.
Mortenson believes that by educating young women, knowledge is more easily passed down through the generations.
Some attending the event agreed.
"We're the one that builds the neighborhood and have the children and typically are the ones who has hands on [interaction] and raises the children. So you know it just makes sense that the majority of education needs to lie upon the women," said attendee Dena Altman.
Copies of Mortenson's book were distributed in June to Vanderbilt's incoming first-year class.
