San Rafael couple's 'Mines to Vines' is on the climb

Jim Welte, Marin Independent Journal, San Rafael, California

Gary and Heidi Kuhn love traveling to places where there are no McDonald's or Starbucks to be found. What they do when they get there far exceeds your typical vacation.

For the past twelve years^†, the San Rafael couple has been spearheading Roots of Peace, a nonprofit organization that has focused on removing mines from war-torn areas and then turning those abandoned mine fields into an asset to the local economy. Since 2003, the group has focused largely on Afghanistan, the country in which the United States has been waging war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban^† since October 2001 and which has been the subject of widespread debate in recent months as the Obama administration reviews its strategy there.

Gary and Heidi Kuhn in Bamyan Afghanistan

But while that debate centers on how many new U.S. troops to send to the country, what is not being disputed is how vital it is to revive the Afghan economy and steer it away from the poppies-to-opium train that has had the country in a stranglehold for decades.

Roots of Peace is slowly but steadily releasing Afghanistan from that grip. In its six years of existence, Mines to Vines, a program in which former farmlands are cleared of landmines and redeveloped as vineyards for crops such as seedless green grapes, almonds and apricots, has blossomed. After starting in 2003 with a $247,000 budget, the program's 2010 budget is $11.8 million, and its employees there have more than tripled to 276. The program operated in three Afghan provinces in 2003, and now is in 23 of the country's 34 provinces. Mines to Vines has helped export more than 400 tons^† of grapes to markets in India, Pakistan, Dubai and throughout western Asia. "We are helping them get back to the land," Heidi Kuhn said, noting that the country's economy is 80 percent dependent on agriculture. "This was once dubbed the Garden of Asia, and we are bringing it back and helping to restore these vineyards."

Mines to Vines has attracted the attention of world leaders, including Ban Ki-Moon, the secretary general of the United Nations."Each mine cleared, each square meter rendered free of unexploded ordnance, helps to build a foundation for development and peace," Ban said in a statement read by his chief of staff last week at a Roots of Peace event in Connecticut.

Ban said Roots of Peace's Mines to Vines program "is playing a crucial role in the country's reconstruction. Afghanistan needs the international community's assistance and solidarity, and I am pleased that you are doing your part."

There are a number of organizations working throughout the world to remove landmines and redevelop the land, including the Humpty Dumpty Institute and Freedom Fields. But according to Kurt Chesko, vice president at landmine removal organization Halo Trust, Roots of Peace is unique among them.

"Once land is de-mined, it's going to be used by the local people no matter what, but obviously the people that live in mined areas are the poorest of the poor, so that anytime a organization like Roots of Peace can come in and jump-start the economy and get the ground used for agriculture, that is ideal," he said.

Roots of Peace started as largely a fundraising operation based out of the Kuhns' home in San Rafael, with Heidi Kuhn tapping into her network of friends and contacts in the Napa Valley wine industry to donate money to her organization, which would in turn contract with groups like Halo Trust for mine removal. But as time passed, Roots of Peace took on more ownership of the program, focused heavily in the Shomali Plains just north of Kabul.

The biggest early obstacle Roots of Peace faced was that once mines were cleared from the fields, once-fertile lands were barren, with dried up irrigation channels providing little water. Decades of war had wiped out a generation of farmers. With early help from the University of California at Davis, Roots of Peace began educating farmers in pruning and trellising grapes, and imported American-made processing equipment to streamline local harvesting.

As Mines to Vines grew, Gary Kuhn, who helped set up software giant Adobe Systems and has been in technology business development for more than two decades, got more involved. He said the program shifted from clearing out mine fields and then figuring out what to do with the land to "looking for areas of opportunity for business and agriculture, focusing on high-priority areas."

Targeting areas for redevelopment has led to a higher success rate, Kuhn said, as has President Obama's shift in military strategy in Afghanistan. The "hold and protect" tactic, in which the military enters an area, secures it to let government and non-government organizations bring in aid behind them, allows for the sort of long-term economic development that makes a difference, Kuhn said.

"The military clearly understand that they cannot shoot their way to victory there," he said. "They are being very proactive now and in more of a building role. That helps us work with the farmers. It's not like before, when the military would come in and then leave and then the Taliban would return. This is a much better approach."

Although violence continues to ravage the country, particularly in the areas in and around Kandahar and Helmand, Gary Kuhn said that doesn't tell the whole story.

"If you listen to the news, you get the sense that the whole place is burning," he said. "But I have never once been confronted by an Afghan in a violent situation or even have someone frown at me, for that matter."

Roots of Peace staff deals directly with local Afghan elders and travels the country in low-key vehicles and without large security details. They are rarely hassled beyond the rampant shakedowns at illegal checkpoints, Kuhn said. By approaching local elders directly, Roots of Peace avoids much of the corruption that plagues Afghanistan, Kuhn said.

"If they don't want us there, we'll just go somewhere else," he said. "And the farmers always want to do it. And if the elders say yes, they've got to look out for us. It's worked so far."

In its early days, Bank of Marin gave the group a $300,000 line of credit, with their home as collateral, to make payroll in Afghan. The bank maintains the group's accounts, occasionally wiring money to the International Bank in Kabul to pay its bills. Bank of Marin CEO Russ Colombo said he's constantly inspired by the Kuhn family.

Their daughter, Kyleigh Kuhn, co-founded the group's Penny Campaign^† program, which now operates in more than 100 schools nationwide and has raised more than 30 million pennies - $300,000.

For Roots of Peace, what started out as a largely private fundraising effort has sprouted into an organization that is funded by the U.S. Department of State^†, U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, among others. The Asian Development Bank gave the program $18 million in 2007 - the largest grant to date.

Gary Kuhn visits Afghanistan at least four times a year.

That won't change anytime soon, he said. More than 44 percent of the Afghan population is estimated to be under age 14.

"That spells of opportunity to me," Heidi Kuhn said. "But for us, there is no exit strategy. How do you say it's too dangerous so we're going to go back to playing tennis? Right now, we're in the throes of it."