Greetings to Vermont Guard, Families and friends,

It is my pleasure and honor to update you on the progress of the Tom Stone Schools in Afghanistan. Tom served 3 tours there with the Vermont Guard and in 2006 was killed in Helmand Province.

Those of you who knew my beloved Tom, more often known as “Doc” or Stoney” may recall that back in 2008 we started a grass roots fundraising project to build a school in Afghanistan honoring Tom’s deep love for the Afghan children.  

At the time I was perfectly terrified that we would not be able to raise enough money to do anything. We had no big money connection, I had never done any fundraising before and it just happened to be the beginning of a big economic downturn.

We raise dollar after dollar by word of mouth, newspaper articles, and lots of benefit dances!  That first year we funded 3 very basic school structures. Since then Direct Aid International (Jonathan Hoffman) has built 30 schools with funds raised in Tom’s memory.

The latest project is a school in Doabe (Central Afghanistan). Construction was started last year, completing the foundation and walls.  We hope this will be a model school for other regions of the country to replicate over time. It will be one of the largest schools in rural Afghanistan.   The estimated completion time is 3 years with a cost of  $60,000. The District Governor, Afghan police, Administry of Education and a clinic are within 100 meters of the school. The project also involves renovating an existing school to provide Environmental Studies, Computer Lab, and a solar powered long distance or CD ROM learning room.

     It is with heart-felt gratitude I offer my deepest thanks to the  “Willett Foundation” in specifically supporting the Tom Stone Schools.

  Funding is important, though these schools would not exist without the brave and dedicated efforts of Jonathan Hoffman of Direct Aid International. A note of Thanks to the many folks that supported this little spark of an idea, And to the courageous soldiers that spent time deployed in this country. I trust you will feel some satisfaction that these schools may represent a hopeful future for the Afghans.

Another project taking root in the area of this latest Tom Stone School is collaboration with the environmental group “Conservation Organization of Afghan mountains   ( COAM)”. They have agreed to plant 1,000 trees in an area near a recently built dam. The funding for this project from Direct Aid International includes, supplies, training and education of students and faculty and payment for local people to help with the planting. For more info on COAM projects visit www.myafghanmountains.org

Direct Aid international is a 501c non-profit. Jonathan Hoffman has made 17 trips to Afghanistan, and funded 47 schools and one library.

Volunteers do everything involved in running the organization such as, web site care, bookkeeping, calendar, newsletters and oversight. There are no paid workers.

For more info you can check out www.directaidinternational.org