LA JOLLA — Editor’s note: This story is part of a December series honoring outstanding La Jollans who have gone above and beyond to unselfishly help others. While watching the shocking events of 9/11 unfold on her television, La Jollan Fary Moini felt there had to be something she could do. Not quite knowing where to turn, she approached fellow La Jolla/Golden Triangle Rotary Club member Steve Brown about working with refugees in Afghanistan. As a relatively new Rotarian, she was unsure about how to start such an ambitious project. But with Brown’s help, she was soon on her way to spending two months in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. Shocked by the horrible conditions the refugees were exposed to, Moini was inspired to take an entirely new path in life. She would eventually give up her Mira Mesa tuxedo shop, sell her condo and move in with a friend to be able to devote her time to helping the people of Afghanistan. “When she came back, she got up in front of our club and said, ‘This is a horrible situation and they need help,’ and ‘let’s go people, we’re going to help them,’” said Jan Percival, a friend and fellow Rotarian. “She basically got up there and challenged all of us to get out of our comfort zones.” Struck by the lack of stable education for Afghan children, particularly the hoards that would soon be returning from refugee camps in Pakistan, Brown and Moini became fixated on building a school in the province of Jalalabad. Through the support of the Rotary Club and a grant from a private foundation, Moini and Brown traveled to Jalalabad around the end of 2002 to find a site for the future school. “That was when we realized that this was actually going to go forward,” Brown said. Construction on the school’s buildings took a year and a half to complete, and the Jalalabad Rotary School opened in 2004. Now with almost 5,000 students — about 1,500 of them girls — the school is constantly growing and is currently adding six more classrooms. It even has a computer lab and Internet access, where students communicate with children at the Rotary School’s sister school, Doyle Elementary in La Jolla. Students exchange stories about their culture and daily life, and send letters and artwork to each other. Friends have said that Moini, who had previously been viewed by her peers as “elegant and soft-spoken,” returned from her initial volunteer experience in the refugee camp as an “unstoppable force.” Percival said Moini changed before her peers’ eyes. “We could see the difference in her. She was so highly motivated, so determined,” said Percival. “She became a leader.” Moini has also worked with Nangarhar University in Jalalabad, enlisting fellow Rotary Club members to help build a female dormitory on Nangarhar’s campus to encourage women to pursue degrees, particularly teaching degrees. Moini sees this as a solution to a pressing problem — that there are too few female teachers. This issue is particularly poignant in Jalalabad, where many families don’t allow their daughters to be taught by male teachers after sixth grade. Moini is spending the month of December in Afghanistan working on a number of projects, mainly the Global Connections and Exchange (GCE) program. With GCE, Moini is visiting Afghani secondary schools, helping them connect with San Diego-area high schools through the Internet, bridging communication gaps between the two cultures. Colleagues who have seen Moini’s transformation since her first trip in 2002 see the evolution of their friend as both natural and astounding. “I think Fary is highly motivated to help where there has been injustice,” said Percival. “She was profoundly impacted by the horrific conditions those refugees were living in, and I think she felt absolutely called to right that injustice because she knew she had the means to deliver help. She really motivated the rest of us to want to fall in line right behind her.” Do you know a good samaritan whose efforts deserve to be shared? The Village News wants to hear your stories of La Jollans’ altruistic actions and noble endeavors. Please send bios and photos to [email protected]. Notes from Afghanistan The following excerpts are from an e-mail sent by Moini to the Village News from Afghanistan. She periodically sends journal-like updates to friends and colleagues from abroad. “It is amazing how everything has changed in less than two months. Now there are more walls, check points, razor wires; it gives you the feeling that, yes, you are in a war zone.” “This new generation of Afghans, in particular the women and innocent, young children are the source of my energy. Their progress in less than nine years, their smiles, love, warmth and their hospitality are beyond our understanding.” “Right now, I am looking for some funding for the widows in a small village. We want to empower them economically so they can send their children to school. With just $15,000, we can assist four families to get out of poverty and break this horrible cycle and dependency among these women, who are totally ignored in this society after their husbands have passed away.” “With this trip, I am constantly following up and providing assistance in any way I can, trying to build a very strong bond between us and their community, especially the respected elders who are very powerful in this country.” “It took us five years to build their trust. Afghans do not easily trust anybody, particularly those of us from America. It took so many cups of tea and sitting in the floor and sharing food and talking, but now everybody knows us. They are very much aware that we are here with no agenda, that we are just here to help them and that we want to have their respect and cooperation in return.” “It is a very complicated society and it takes years to learn and understand them. They have lots of great qualities to build on.”