Hope for Afghans' Future: Packed Schools

Feb. 10, 2009— -- With swelling official corruption, more than half of its people living on less than $100 a month and nearly half who cannot read, the situation in Afghanistan is bleak.

But ABC News pollsters did see a glimmer of hope: schools.

In the results from an exclusive national survey of more than 1,500 Afghans in all 34 of the country's provinces and produced by ABC News, the BBC and ARD German TV, 72 percent of Afghans polled say schools have been rebuilt or reopened in their area.

And the evidence is visible.

Outside Jalalabad, on the road to Tora Bora, is the improbably named La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club School, funded by a California Rotary club.

And for the sign of a successful school, one needs only to check the roof.

"Desks on the roof are a universal sign of a school in Afghanistan," said volunteer Dr. Dave Warner.

"We have 3,800 students here, over 1,000 girls. The classrooms are so full," Warner said, "you can't fit the desks in, and they have to have multiple shifts."

Warner holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D. and is part of what he calls "the nerd surge" in Afghanistan -- volunteers traveling on their own dime to provide medical help, education and basic services for ordinary Afghans. But it has been far from an ordinary experience for Warner.

One meeting about the school stands out. "[A]t the end of the meeting, they said, 'oh, would you like to go by Osama's house?' Not if he's home!" Warner said.

Osama bin Laden has not been home for more than a decade. But less than half a mile from the school is his former residence, where he once lived with three of his wives. Once a Soviet collective farm, it was called Najin al Jihad, or Holy Star of War.

"We had no idea," Warner said. "On the other hand, it illustrates a point. People that care can come somewhere and make a profound difference."

After a swift trip to see the ruins of the bin Laden compound, which was struck by a missile in 2001, it's necessary to keep moving for security purposes.

It is not a friendly neighborhood, but you never have to worry about Warner holding still very long.