Somewhere in Kabul, a child is listening to "The Cat in the Hat."

For weeks, hundreds of people throughout the East Bay have been gathering to make recordings of donated book titles such as the Dr. Seuss classic, along with "Arthur" and "Thumbelina." The books, tapes and tape players are then sent to children in Afghanistan. People have included pictures of themselves and handwritten notes to the children who will read their books and listen to their voices.

About 80 such kits have been sent. Eight hundred more will be transported to the Afghanistan Relief Organization in Southern California, where they will become part of a larger relief shipment. The kits will help students in Kabul and Jalalabad learn to read and write English.

"It just seemed like a really nice thing to do," said Deena McClain, of Oakland, who, along with her 11-year-old daughter, Ronika, donated four books. "I really thought it would be something positive to do, and something she would get a lot out of."

The Voices to Afghanistan project is the brainchild of Walnut Creek resident Carol Lynn Pearson, who came up with the idea while watching news coverage of the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001. A year-and-a-half later, when she became a member of the public affairs council of the local Mormon church, church officials were excited by her idea and pledged their support.

Many kits are stacked on a large wooden desk in Pearson's home. Although money for the program has been raised mainly through donations from Mormons, the reading material is not religious.

"Most of these are pretty short books that can be read in five to eight minutes. We want them to be very basic books," said Pearson, an author best known for her autobiography, "Goodbye, I Love You," about her marriage to a gay man, their divorce, and her caring for him as he died of AIDS.

The initial set of kits was taken to Afghanistan by Richard Finch of Oakland, who is also a member of the church's public affairs council. Finch spent two weeks in October going to schools in Kabul, Jalalabad and surrounding areas in Afghanistan.

Finch visited private schools set up by Afghan expatriates as well as public schools. He said the bureaucracy surrounding the public schools made them harder to deal with.

"Being Islamic, they were concerned -- they didn't want things coming into their schools that were overtly Christian," Finch said. "They had to listen to the tapes to make sure we didn't put something on them that was contrary to the books."

Finch said conditions in the capital vary greatly. Some sections of Kabul are still bombed out, with entire neighborhoods reduced to little more than piles of rubble on either side of the streets.

"For the schools, many of them are meeting in tents," Finch said.

But there were signs of reconstruction, with new schools being built with German funding, and people eagerly going about their business, looking healthy and upbeat.

"Kids are anxious to learn, they want to learn," Finch said.

While recent events in Iraq have pushed Afghanistan off the front page, the battle-scarred nation is still struggling to build the foundations of a stable society.

Education has traditionally been held in high regard in Afghanistan. According to a Farsi adage: "Acquiring knowledge is the duty of every Muslim man and woman."

But under the strict Taliban rule, girls were prohibited from receiving an education, and many schools were unable to teach at all because of constant fighting between the Taliban and the rebel Northern Alliance.

"I, like many others, couldn't believe those women over there had been denied everything," Pearson said.

In the post-Taliban era, she said, there are still cases where schoolchildren must write in the sand because they lack pencils and paper, especially in the country's northern and southern provinces.

In addition to helping the children of Afghanistan, the project has helped bring together and inspire people in the Bay Area, from students at a Walnut Creek middle school and UC Berkeley to families such as the McClains.

Vanessa Tui'one, 22, a senior majoring in international development at Berkeley, said she helped record a story in hopes of improving the living conditions of Afghan children.

"I hope it opens opportunities for them. I know learning English will help them," Tui'one said.

Jacquie Rich of Walnut Creek, her son, Nick, 16, and husband, John, all recorded books at home for the project.

Michele Gunnell of Walnut Creek made recordings at her church with other volunteer readers. "I had so much fun reading the books with the people that brought them in," Gunnell said.

At Walnut Creek Intermediate, students in a social studies elective class called Teens Around the World were able to identify with their Afghan counterparts by taking part in the book drive, said teacher Julie Krug.

During a recent class, the students smiled and talked excitedly about what they'd done. All said they found it to be a rewarding experience, although some initially found it hard to record the books because they made mistakes or laughed while reading.

"I did 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear.' It's a classic," said Kat Morgan, 13.

"A lot of kids like 'Thumbelina' here, so I thought they'd like it there, " said Julia McCartney, 12. "I just hope to put a smile on the child's face."

Krug also used the project as an opportunity to educate the class about the millions of land mines littering the countryside in Afghanistan and other countries in Asia and Africa that kill and maim thousands of children each year.

"We learned how Afghanistan used to be at war for like 20 years, and some people have been growing up in nothing but war," said Prashanth Rajarajan, 12.

"I was surprised because we take so many things for granted, like just going to school," added Sarah Knaapen, 13.

Britney Cossel, 13, said she wanted "to let them know that they have friends. That they're not alone in the world."

The class has assembled 30 kits, and plans to put together another 30 over the next few weeks, Krug said. The program has been careful to collect books that have no religious or cultural themes that could be offensive to Afghans.

For that, they've received the support of the country's Ministry of Education, said Pearson, who at the same time admits she couldn't help slip a slightly opinionated story into the pile.

The story, "Paper Bag Princess," is about a princess who rescues the prince she's supposed to marry from a fierce dragon but decides in the end not to marry him.

"I thought that's just subversive enough," Pearson said with a smile.
 

Individuals or groups who are interested in participating in Voices to Afghanistan can send an e-mail to clp@clpearson.com. To help fund the transport of books and tapes and the purchase of tape players for the schools, send donations to the nonprofit Voices to Afghanistan, 1384 Cornwall Court, Walnut Creek, CA 94597.