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Instead of traveling to a local school to tutor students for Service Learning, the Pax Populi program allows you to use Skype and connect with someone halfway across the world in Afghanistan.
The term Pax Populi means the peace of the people. Because education and economic development are both important factors in deterring violence, this program serves to educate the new generation of Afghans in order for them to bring peace to their own country.
The country of Afghanistan has been in a constant state of war and turmoil for more than 30 years and for people that live thousands of miles away from those conditions, it is often impossible for us to comprehend what a situation like that is like.
Dr. Robert E. McNulty, director of programs at Bentley’s Center for Business Ethics, looked at these circumstances with a more optimistic outlook and began his work in establishing a non-profit educational program called Pax Populi.
This program is dedicated to teaching the English language to young Afghan students via Skype in order to “give [them] a tool that has enormous economic benefit. Growing up in a state of ongoing war, there is an incredible sense of isolation, but with [Pax Populi] we are connecting them to an outside world that has an interest in them.”
McNulty went on to explain that when these Afghans are virtually sitting across from an American student, they see a college-educated adult that has a sense of confidence; something very different than what they are used to. This alone gives them enough hope for new opportunities that they will continue to pursue their education.
When asked how this out-of-the-box idea came to be, McNulty explained that living a relatively international life, one’s eyes are opened to both positive and negative circumstances in other countries. “If you look around the country, there are all these people that carry peace signs… but if you ask them what they’re doing for peace, they aren’t really doing anything.”
Instead of solely talking about the devastating situations in countries around the world that are suffering because of war, he decided to take action and so, Pax Populi was born.
Pax Populi was introduced to Bentley in September of 2010 with help from the Service Learning Center and five English speaking tutors. For Junzhi Ma, a junior at Bentley studying Finance, this program offered an opportunity to try something new and continue with his dedication to service learning.
Last semester, he was paired up with a 17-year-old girl who attends the school SOLA in Afghanistan and was immediately struck by how well she spoke English. This enabled him to conduct more open-ended discussion based tutoring sessions, while she enhanced her reading and writing skills through Skype chat.
Resources such as writing prompts are provided to tutors beforehand, but students have the freedom to chat about everything from cultural differences to current events. This allows the American student to bond more personally with the Afghan student, promoting a sense of peace between the two cultures.
Junzhi noted that because his mentee had extremely limited internet access, she would have to commute to an internet café after school in order to make her tutoring sessions, and rolling blackouts would serve to complicate communication between the two even further. The dedication put forth by the students in Afghanistan in order to pursue their education through Pax Populi is nothing short of inspirational.
For the future of this program, McNulty has been working hard to create an official Pax Populi organization in order to hold a stronger presence on campus and build a foundation for years to come. The program has been impacting two schools in the provinces of Bamiyan and Kabul for two years now, but the Pax Populi staff has high hopes in terms of reaching out to a variety of communities.
With tutor-mentee relationships already established in countries like Korea, Saudi Arabia and France, this program is just beginning to grow.
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I admire very much what Pax Populi has been doing for Afghans. The Kabul skype-tutor program is a marvelous idea. As an unaffiliated skype mentor for SOLA myself & thus privy to the day-to-day doings of the students there, I recommend that the SOLA students be monitored 2-3 times a Bentley semester for their level of satisfaction with their individual Bentley tutors, so that the service does not end up being more a burden to them than a help. Some Sola students have expressed frustration & disappointment about their assigned tutors, some of whom sounded inept & poorly oriented, per the SOLA students’ remarks, and therefore unhelpful to these girls with a very busy study schedule. The SOLA girls are unfailingly polite, and loath to offend their assigned tutors, who are usually older & thus due respect, so some of the girls end up accommodating an unskilled tutor who isn’t useful to their critically important study goals.
This feedback is meant to be helpful to your commendable program. I stand ready to help if I can!