By Barbara D. Kiernan, M.A.'90

Like thousands of U.S. Servicemen, Lt. Col. Christopher Conley of Wolfeboro, N.H., spent last Father's Day far away from his family. An Army National Guard officer assigned to the medical service corps, he was sent to Afghanistan in July 2004 as an embedded trainer, advising the Afghan National Army on requirements for medical logistics, operations, and evacuation. The expertise he shared helped Afghani military leaders coordinate emergency heating for the Kabul Children's Hospital, construct community centers, set up a system to distribute medicine, and begin digging wells for the 17,000 village communities that need them.

"I often see children as young as six carrying water in various containers that their small frames can hardly handle," he wrote to his family. His daughter, Mikaela, then entering her junior year at Fairfield, knew she had to do something. A member of the student group Network for Social Justice, she discussed the situation with her peers and founded the Afghan Children's Fund. "It was heartbreaking to realize that kids who are so uninvolved in the conflict are victims of their circumstances," she says.

Mikaela, who is Catholic, teamed up with fellow international studies major Aamina Awan '07, who is Muslim. Together they raised $3,000 through donations from businesses, friends, and classmates. "We stood outside Stop & Shop twice," she says, "and my friend, Brian McAllister '06 arranged to have proceeds from a Theatre Fairfield's improv show go to our project."

With the help of classmates and employees of the University Bookstore (Follett Higher Educational Group), the duo also collected 30 large boxes of clothes for children and young adults. "Through Campus Ministry, we send our warm weather overstock to Haiti," explains Barbara Farrell, bookstore manager. "When Mikayla and Aamina came to us about their project, everyone here wanted to help. Our cold weather items were perfect for the temperatures in Afghanistan." On his own dime, Pedro Rosemburg of the shipping and receiving department, who emigrated from Ecuador just two years ago, put together a box of board games for U.S. and Afghani troops to enjoy. The store itself donated sweatshirts, sweatpants, and school supplies including pads, pens, and paper.

When Mikaela contacted her father about their fundraising efforts, Lt. Col. Conley met with the elders of Aloudine, a village northwest of Kabul that is home to 200 families. "The elders told me about the serious shortage of drinking water," he says, "and families spend many hours every week bringing water to their homes." And so, the money raised by Mikaela and Aamina funded a village well - drilled and operational in time for Father's Day 2005. Little did Mikaela and Aamina realize that their efforts would find a wider audience than the grateful villagers who, when dedicating the well, placed alongside it a plaque that reads: A Gift to Afghan Children from Fairfield University; United States of America; Peace Brings All Good Things.

The story was picked up by CNN, and the young women were interviewed by Carol Costello, host of the network's national morning news show, Daybreak. Lt. Col. Conley, who returned from duty in August 2005, is impressed by the response of Fairfield students. "The devastation that has befallen Afghanistan by wars, drugs, and violence is overwhelming, but it is the little things that have allowed this country to turn the corner to find peace. The Afghan Children's Fund was one such blessing."

Note: Nancy Habetz, M.A.'84 contributed to this article.