is co-founder of the Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org, founder of Pennies For Peace www.penniesforpeace.org, co-author of the best-sellers Three Cups of Tea (Penguin, 2006) and Stones into Schools (Viking, 2009). In 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civil award, the Star of Pakistan, for his dedicated humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas. As of 2010, Mortenson has established 145 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 64,000 children—including 50,000 girls—where few educational opportunities previously existed. Three Cups of Tea is required reading for US senior military commanders, for US Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan, and Pentagon officers in counterinsurgency training. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees.

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