Valley peace activist Paki Wieland is en route to Kabul, Afghanistan, where she will work with a local non-governmental organization and attempt to get a true picture of this society’s challenges.

Wieland and others from around the world hope to encourage the work of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, whose members plan to join hands and walk through Kabul streets Saturday, then gather Monday to mark both the first day of spring and their nation’s New Year’s Day with a vigil honoring children who have died in wars, in Afghanistan and around the globe.

The retired 67-year-old teacher and social worker flew Wednesday from New York City to Moscow, the first leg of a three-part journey to Kabul. “We’re not going with an ‘American plan,’” Wieland said as she prepared to catch a Megabus bound for John F. Kennedy Airport.

She checked in by email today from the Moscow airport, where she was waiting for a second flight to Dubai, and then another to Kabul due in at 3 a.m. Friday morning.

The seven-day trip with four other activists from New England is the latest international mission for Wieland. She has traveled with others to the Middle East, including a trip to Gaza designed to bring attention to conditions there resulting from that Palestinian area’s long conflict with Israel.

Wieland said she was looking forward to meeting Afghans who seek to end violence after decades of fighting dating back to the Soviet occupation. “We have generations who haven’t known peace,” the Northampton resident said. She was looking forward to the vernal equinox. “It’s a sign of hope that life is coming back, even here, perhaps.”

Wieland and other visitors will be guests of Open Society, an NGO based in Kabul, and will be staying in offices converted temporarily into bedrooms.

This week, Gen. David H. Petraeus told Congress that plans are moving forward to reduce the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan starting this summer, though most personnel removed will be support troops, not combat forces. Fighting is expected to intensify this spring and summer.

While Wieland said she supports troop withdrawals, she acknowledged that a major reduction isn’t imminent. “It can’t happen tomorrow,” she said of ending the U.S. presence. “We will do everything we can to put pressure on our government to end the war.”

A participating organization is Voices for Creative Nonviolence, whose co-coordinator, Kathleen Kelly, worked with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers as recently as last December.

While Wieland and other visitors will spend most of the week in Kabul, meeting with Afghan people who travel in from villages, they may visit Bagram Air Force Base about 75 miles north of the capital. Wieland said the delegation is staying close to Kabul for safety reasons. (Right, a child sells twigs used for teeth cleaning in Kabul on Thursday / AP PHOTO)

She said that as a social worker, she hopes to get a better sense of how prolonged conflict and violence has affected the Afghan people.

Why venture more than 7,000 miles each way to do that? Though her grown daughter wishes she wouldn’t expose herself to risk, Wieland says she feels compelled, in part by Buddhist teaching, to travel in the cause of peace.

She said she had a kind of eureka moment a decade ago that led her to close out a teaching career to devote more time to activism.
“What do I want to do with this one life of mine?” Wieland said she asked herself at the time. “This is what I need to do with it. I’m in a position that’s uniquely free to do this.”
She reached out to friends and supporters to help cover the $1,500 airfare.

“This was a trip I couldn’t actually afford. I put out word to my tribe ... far and wide. I’m very appreciative that the community of support that I experience allows me to do this.”

Tish Engerman of Greenfield, from left, Priscilla Lynch of Conway and Paki Wieland of Northampton pause before leaving for a West Point rally.