With the completion of our project, we would like to thank everyone for everything that they did.  We could not have completed this project alone.  Thank you.

Our Girl Scout Gold Award project was designed to strengthen the ties between India and Pakistan and to create awareness in Texas of the problems of the Kashmir region pictured below. 

As senior Girl Scouts, we are completing our Gold Award.  We hope to spread education throughout this unstable area.  The Citizens Foundation is a non-profit NGO that builds schools for unprivileged kids throughout Pakistan.  They have also started building schools in Kashmir.  We are working with The Citizens Foundation and sending solar-powered flashlights to these students so that they can further their education after dark and teach their parents.  These solar powered flashlights were invented by Mark Bent who started the corporation SunNight Solar.  We are working with SunNight solar to deliver flashlights to these children.  They charge in the sun during the day, then work for hours at night.  This way, their meager income can be spent on food as opposed to oil for kerosene lanterns.   

Through talking about our project, we hope to spread some of the awareness for this impoverished region.  Below are some cartograms and statistics relating to the problems of this region..

Statistics:   All these statistics come from the government of Jammu and Kashmir at http://www.ajk.gov.pk/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2354&Itemid=138

Kashmir is about 224,788 sq. km. (86,791 sq. mi.)  This is about the same size as Minnesota.
Population Density-people per sq. km. (U.S. v. Jammu and Kashmir): 31 to 252
Literacy Rate (U.S. v. Jammu Kashmir): 99% to 60%(Although the ratio of men to women within Kashmir is 66 to 42)

This is a view of India and Pakistan by night.  Notice the black at the top of where India and Pakistan meet.  This is Kashmir.

This is a cartogram of child mortality.   Notice how India and Pakistan are just as much of a problem with this as Africa is.  The 2 of them are just about the same size as the whole continent of Africa.

This is a cartogram for HIV/AIDS for the world.  India also has a major HIV/AIDS problem that most of the world is not aware of.  Help stop this problem.

Both cartograms were made by Mark Newman from University of Michigan.