Laila Petty's journey through Afghanistan to help rebuild a bombed-out country demonstrates how change can begin with a single hand

By Linda Taaffe, Town Crier Staff Writer

Petite and unassuming - Laila Petty hardly seems like someone who would capture national intrigue in Afghanistan, but word of the single, American woman who works seven days a week alongside an all-male crew rebuilding schools in a war-torn region has spread from village to village. Though most have never met Petty, her legend is rampant, her name on most villagers’ lips.

Petty, the first foreign woman to work in the Afghani refugee camps alone, independent of any organization, has achieved what most have never even dared in some of Afghanistan’s most remote villages over the past 14 months. The retired cost analyst relentlessly sought out foreign aid until securing funding from the Japanese government to rebuild bombed-out schools untouched for as many as 20 years - all this at a time of increased violence and bombings between Taliban and Coalition forces. Taliban and al-Qaeda forces allegedly killed 15 people, including six children, who were riding a bus near Petty’s village in what media are calling one of the deadliest attacks since the end of major combat operations. Petty contacted the Town Crier and said she was unharmed.

Except for the handful of volunteers from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), most agencies avoid Afghanistan’s small towns, where the assaults on foreigners are most prevalent. Disease, extreme temperatures and some remaining attitudes from the Taliban rule that women should be treated like property further isolate villages in the country’s central region.

For Petty, survival has meant disguising herself during travel; dodging bombs during foreign attacks; and following sheep droppings through the village outskirts to avoid hidden land mines.

Even back in the United States, danger remained a factor. Petty censored what she told the Town Crier for fear of possible retribution when she returned to Kabul.

Life without luxury

Her journey has not been easy - she admits that the past 14 months have been emotionally and physically draining - but the poor conditions have not been enough to dissuade her from helping villagers rebuild their communities. A pact with God to help others as long as she is capable has compelled Petty to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. She gave up her Los Altos Hills home last year and moved into a war-damaged home that she repaired in a small village 78 kilometers north of Kabul. There is no electricity or running water in her neighborhood. Her view is of mounds of rubble from demolished buildings. She faces a three-hour daily commute over roads with potholes large enough to trap a car to the village where she is currently working.

Although Kabul would have provided more comforts and safety, Petty preferred to conserve money for her volunteer work rather than spend an estimated $3,000 to $7,000 in rent for a home in the city.

“Everyone warned me not to go there. They told me ‘no foreigners go there,’” but Petty is accustomed to putting her faith in God, she said. “God is on my side. He is smiling down on me.”

And if you follow Petty’s faith, it appears he is. The Japanese government chose to fund Petty’s school rehabilitation project from among 200 applications.

Thousands of curious villagers traveled to Hazarajat in the Parvan Providence, about 20 kilometers west of Kabul, July 19, to catch a glimpse of Petty during a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of a 7,200-square-foot high school that Petty was responsible for reconstructing. They lined up along a 3 kilometer stretch of dirt road leading to the school in 100-plus heat to throw fresh, imported flowers to Petty and call out her name. In an unprecedented move, the Japanese ambassador joined the procession despite the possibility of assassination attempts.

A call to help

For Petty, the desire to help surpasses the threat of danger.

Grief over the death of her husband six years ago fueled an inner desire in Petty to help others. She has dedicated most of her time as a widow traveling the world helping others while healing herself.

“I was devastated when I lost my husband,” Petty said about Carlisle, a former colonel in the U.S. Army during an interview last year. “Life had no meaning. I felt totally lost. I didn’t know where to start. I would wake up and still be alive … I wondered, ‘Why am I here?’ Finally, I thought, ‘Laila, you better do something worthwhile if you’re going to be living.’”

Believing in hands-on donations, Petty set out around the world lending a hand where needed.

She has worked with displaced people in Bangladesh, as well as the poor in Burma and Thailand, and has visited the poor in Pakistan while working in the Middle East for a large American corporation. She admits she had been ignorant of the Afghan refugees’ plight until she read about conditions in the refugee camps in a newspaper article last year that prompted her to go to Pakistan to distribute food and oil.

“I believe in hands-on donations. I know I can’t change (everything) but a little help can go a long way and make a small difference,” she said.

Building schools in Afghanistan was not part of Petty’s plan when she returned to Pakistan last year. Petty had spent months perfecting the use of solar stoves in her Los Altos Hills yard in order to launch a solar-cooking program in the camps, where refugees often lost limbs or died from land mines while hunting for wood to use as fuel.

A change in plans

A string of bombings along the Pakistan border near the Afghan refugee camps forced Petty to flee the area and ultimately change her course.

“There were bombings the day before I arrived and bombings the day after. There were bombings for seven days. I had to leave. there was too much danger. I went to Kabul (in Afghanistan) and waited,” she said. “The destruction is so massive it made me cry. I can’t describe what I saw … It was like a movie.”

Few people were interested in funding her solar-cooking program after she left the camps. Rebuilding schools, clinics and roads were priorities in Afghanistan, she said. An estimated 90 percent of Afghan villages don’t have school buildings due to the country’s internal and external conflicts over the past 20-plus years with the Taliban, Russian and Coalition forces, she said. The children gather in tents to learn.

Rather than return home, Petty decided to form her own non-profit organization, Information for Concern, and apply for funding to rebuild schools. Those who donated to her cooking program supported Petty’s change of plans, she said.

“I’ve never seen children so enthusiastic about learning. They walk several kilometers to go to school,” Petty said.

Petty has worked on two schools in the Parvan Province over the past year. One was allegedly destroyed by a Russian attack 20 years ago. The harsh climate damaged the other after locals tried to repair it using mud bricks. Through a second Japanese grant, she is set to work on a third school believed to be bombed by Coalition forces attacking Taliban allegedly hiding in the building. Petty said there is a possibility that she and her crew will uncover their corpses during excavation of the site.

Rebuilding the school in the village near Hazarajat took Petty and her 12-man crew seven months to complete, working from morning to night, seven days a week, in extreme heat and snow, she said. Petty said she learned some construction techniques while building her Los Altos Hills home more than 18 years ago. She studied books and assisted workers with her house.

“There is nothing else to do there,” Petty said about the rigorous work schedule. “There is no electricity or television.”

The possibility of hidden land mines made surveying and excavating the site one of the most dangerous steps in the process.

“We followed the sheep droppings … in single file so if there was a land mine, only one person would be blown up,” Petty said.

The school includes a library and bathrooms - a luxury - and can accommodate 1,200 high school students. The Japanese grant provided funding only for materials and a set amount of workers. Petty said all of the supplies for the concrete and rebarb, tin-roofed building were imported. The “shura” or town elders had to give Petty the final approval for the construction. Girls attend classes in the morning and boys attend in the afternoon, she said.

“As long as you are humble, people will try to understand you,” Petty said. Last week she returned to Afghanistan “with the grace of God.”