Pens and Pencils from Mission Viejo to Afghanistan

Mission Viejo recently helped American soldiers fight a different kind of enemy in Afghanistan: illiteracy.

In June, the city collected pens, paper, pencils and any other writing implements to send to troops on the other side of the world as part of Operation: Pens 4 Peace.

One goal of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan is teaching locals how to police themselves. But rampant illiteracy makes this difficult.

Afghanistan has a literacy rate of about 28.4 percent, according to the CIA world fact book. For a comparison, America's literacy rate is 99 percent.

Only one in 10 people who sign up for the Afghan police can read, a senior NATO commander said earlier this year.

The Operation: Pens 4 Peace program was inspired by a letter from Army Capt. Nick Clemente, stationed in Afghanistan, to his mother, a Laguna Niguel resident. 

In the March 24 letter, Clemente, tasked with helping local forces become law enforcement personnel, detailed some of his struggles.

Clemente wrote, “How do we train quality police officers who can’t read? How does a policeman write a simple report or conduct an inventory of his men’s weapons?”

To read a longer excerpt from the letter, scroll to the bottom.

His letter inspired his mother to ask for writing utensils to send to her son, and eventually Clemente's mother's request landed in the e-mail inbox of city crime prevention specialist Tammy Descoteaux.

That’s how Mission Viejo got involved.  

Although, Descoteaux said, the program ended July 4, locals can still send pens and pencils to the troops to help out (See full mailing address at the end of this story).

The program was sponsored by Mission Viejo Police Services, Waste Managment Inc.—which provided the collection containers—and the city Community of Character Committee, a group that promotes positive personal characteristics in Mission Viejo.

Descoteaux said the program fit in with the committee’s June theme of citizenship: Each month the committee celebrates a specific positive trait.

"I think it’s our responsibility to promote citizenship in other countries, and the best way we can do that is by supporting our troops," Descoteaux said. 

"[And we're] supporting our troops so that they can improve their relationship with the Afghan troops,” Descoteaux added.

For more information, contact Descoteaux at 949-470-8733, or email her at crimeprevention@cityofmissionviejo.org

To view the program flier click here

Pens and writing tools can be shipped to the following address:

Comanche School Supplies

C/4-70 AR

FOPB Tarin Kowt (Hadrian)

APO, AE 09380

An excerpt from a letter from Clemente to his mother:

“If we are able to provide just a little bit of help to the next generation of Afghans, we may be able to build not just improved relationships with the villagers during our tour (which is pretty damn good in its own right), but also enable literacy and possibly a more skilled Afghanistan in the long run.”

Another excerpt from that same letter:

“When my men and I travel throughout the district to work with the Afghan National Police we are besieged by children everywhere we go.

They run to the roads when our trucks approach and swarm our formations when we walk by.

While kids in Iraq always wanted candy, kids in Afghanistan want pens, pencils and paper.

A soldier with a couple of pens is like a rock star here … that is how badly the children want to learn.

Just yesterday I was able to spend some time with a group of young boys while my men trained their policemen fathers.

The boys saw that I had a pen and pencil in my uniform pocket and were over the moon when I gave in to their request giving away what I had.

More boys showed up with their “writing utensils” and wanted me to teach them something.

I put writing utensils in quotes because the boys had everything from a broken inside of a pen to merely the extra pencil lead from the inside of the mechanical pencil that I had given to his older brother.

It didn’t matter to them though, if it wrote it was good.

The boys and I then spent the next 45 minutes writing in English and Pashtu, trying to teach each other enough to communicate without a translator.

It was then and there that I decided that I don’t ever want to go back to that village (or any other for that matter) without a whole bunch of pencils and pads of paper.”