I have a special message to all of the student readers, either in high school, middle school, or university. As you may have read, I am the founder of a charity that does work in Africa. A Spring of Hope is a non-profit that constructs wells in rural African schools. We are currently combatting the world water crisis, the mass lack of water in impoverished areas around the world. We are actively encouraging education and leadership by improving  schools through the addition of water in schools. We have found that students will more likely attend school if the school can provide a healthy and happy environment… and how can that be attained without the most essential compound, water? 

A Spring of Hope is looking for students, such as yourselves, who are tired of this generation of inactivity. It is time to take a stand and believe that even individuals can change the world! We need students of all kinds to visit our website, www.aspringofhope.org, and go to the Get Involved page. There, you can find out all you need to know to adopt a school in Africa and directly raise money for it through your school. A Spring of Hope is a wonderful opportunity to develop as a caring human being, learn about another culture, and even save lives. So please, if you are looking to make an impact, visit the website. Now on with my fiction review…

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by The Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini, is an exceptional example of the contemporary novel focusing a unique culture. Though I believe that Hosseini accomplished little stylistically, I felt that he expertly captured the lives of so many women trapped in abusive marriages through his two protagonists, Mariam and Laila. The setting is Afghanistan in recent history. The women live through pivotal moments in middle eastern history while enduring heartache, depression, and despondency. The history is told from an intimate, human perspective through Hoesseini’s novel and its impacts on humanity are fully realized. The novel provides hope when there needs to be while still maintaining the very real overcast of gloom that comes with being held captive by a chauvinist husband. I was entertained and learned much about Afghanistan culture and I encourage you all to read the novel, or at the very least, read his more popular novel The Kite Runner.