Secondlife.com Citizens raised over  L45,000 for girls and boys education in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including L15,000 at today's gallery benefit, that's over 300 months of girl schooling or a packed girls classroom for a whole month or educating about 3 girls from 1st grade through high school! Visit the store now to donate too! http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/Madhupak/58/86/0

At this event, famous artist Trill Zapatero gave a very well attended gallery talk about Elephants, Art, and Central Asian Institute (CAI), her favorite charity which builds and operates 49 boys and girls schools in Afghanistan today. Snaps for TRILL and CAI!

Trill recently returned from an extended trip to India where she painted massive life size works of art for months, that captured the patterns and colors of saris, floura, fauna, and central Asian life (Sample of Elephant Rukmini is in Picture 1). The show called Mystic India plays all month at Juliee Landar's Born Museum of Art: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Born/80/13/39

ELEPHANTS were all the rage during this art talk (Picture 1 and 2), Trill featured elephants prominently in her artwork, and even made some personal friends in the Indian Elephant community, as she explains in public SL chat:
[17:47]  Trill Zapatero: Temple elephants often have travelled all over India
[17:47]  Trill Zapatero: on foot
[17:47]  Trill Zapatero: of course
[17:48]  Trill Zapatero: they are reps for the god Ganesh, who is the remover of obstacles
[17:48]  Van Caerndow: no elephant airlines
[17:48]  Trill Zapatero: people do puja [prayers] to Ganesh
[17:48]  Trill Zapatero: before any undertaking, before starting a business, before taking a journey
[17:49]  Trill Zapatero: k so Rukmini [name of her painting and her Elephant friend]
[17:49]  Trill Zapatero: this could get personal, so
[17:49]  Van Caerndow: set him aside quickly...
[17:50]  Trill Zapatero: forget that
[17:50]  Trill Zapatero: see the temple up there?
[17:50]  Alanah Wildcat: yes
[17:50]  Trill Zapatero: ok well, the temple is Mount meru, the home of the gods
[17:50]  Trill Zapatero: and life is a journey
[17:50]  Juliee Landar: isn't that true!
[17:50]  Trill Zapatero: and all paths start from different places but all go to the same place
[17:51]  Trill Zapatero: in the way way end
[17:51]  Van Caerndow: see you there
[17:51]  Trill Zapatero: and we are all homeless
[17:51]  Juliee Landar: :)
[17:51]  Trill Zapatero: and without a real place, cause our home is the journey
[17:51]  Alanah Wildcat: wowza
[17:51]  Trill Zapatero: and cows, are like psychopomps
[17:51]  Alanah Wildcat: i love that
[17:51]  Trill Zapatero: there spirits lead the dead home
[17:52]  Van Caerndow: do they know that?
[17:52]  Juliee Landar: interesting
[17:52]  Trill Zapatero: so the elephant is coming out of the universe and passing through life on his way to the big festival at the top of the mountain
[17:52]  Trill Zapatero: that's what I see in that painting
[17:54]  Indigo Lucerne: hmm... Do the Elephants come home at dinnertime, like cows?
[17:55]  Trill Zapatero: yes
[17:55]  Trill Zapatero: Elephants, open and close the temple everyday

Attending the gallery talk in Second Life were a whole host of people (Picture 2): Trill Zapatero (Picture 8), Alanah Wildcat & Subsea Surface are both in Picture 10, Stefanik Dagostino, Kane Lionheart, Juliee Landar (Picture 4), littleone Aries (Picture 5), Isis008 Magic (Picture 3 left), Indigo Lucerne (Picture 9), Jazz62 Masala (Picture 6 left), Ichiko Miles, Gus Kiranov, Genevieve Silvercloud (Picture 3 center), Newbab Zsigmond and Merlina Rokocoko are both in Picture 7, katana Inaka, Candice Zapatero, Sunn Thunders, Any Gynoid, Van Caerndow (Picture 5), and Siri Vita.

In a particularly interesting exchange on Second Life (SL) public chat, Trill describes the Central Asian Institute (CAI) and why she is devoting all her proceeds and our donations to that terrific charity, along with gallery owner Juliee Landar, joins in the description. Visit CAI's site and donate at: http://www.ikat.org
[17:54]  Trill Zapatero: My favorite charity in the world is
[17:54]  Trill Zapatero: Central Asian Institute
[17:54]  Juliee Landar: they do great work!
[17:55]  Trill Zapatero: yes
[17:55]  Juliee Landar: and if you have not done so pick up a copy of Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea
[17:55]  Juliee Landar: (book)
[17:56]  Juliee Landar: while this museum does not sell artwork...
[17:56]  Juliee Landar: any purchase of a work by Trill will (100 percent)
[17:56]  Trill Zapatero: they open community based schools for girls in remote regions of Central Asia.
[17:56]  Juliee Landar: be donated to the Central Asia Institute
[17:56]  Trill Zapatero: it is believed that by providing education, we can promote peace in the region
[17:57]  Juliee Landar: yes!!!!
[17:57]  Trill Zapatero: especially by educating girls
[17:57]  Juliee Landar: Please take the time to read the display board right on this floor
[17:57]  Juliee Landar: and if you could...help spread the word!
[17:57]  Trill Zapatero: k
[17:57]  Trill Zapatero: you probably all have it already
[17:58]  Trill Zapatero: anyway, Three has an office now [ThreeCupsOfTea Zifanwe]
[17:58]  Juliee Landar: I think one of the kindest ways to show your appreciation for Trill's work tonight
[17:58]  Trill Zapatero: and we've already raised over 200 US in SL
[17:58]  Trill Zapatero: so that is terribly encouraging
[17:58]  Juliee Landar: is by either buying a painting...or making a donation in the teacup :)
17:59]  Juliee Landar: her talents do not cease to amaze!!!
[17:59]  Trill Zapatero: and from now on, all the proceeds from all my paintings, my dresses and everything goes to the CAI
[17:59]  Trill Zapatero: it's fun too
[17:59]  Juliee Landar: yes...it IS!
[18:00]  Trill Zapatero: it is really hopeful to take an approach from the bottom up, rather than relying on government or politics to change the situation in developing countries
[18:01]  Trill Zapatero: but to realize that through education of girls a huge social and economic change will occur.

ThreeCupsOfTea Zifanwe is Trill's alter ego in 2nd life, an Afghan school girl avatar. Three now has an office on the Amnesty Int'l / PeaceTrain sims. In the near future Three will be selling Trill's art there, and benefiting all proceeds to CAI. Also they plan to offer an entire Afghan ladies wardrobe of formal party dresses there for a donation to CAI of 1 month of an Afghan girl's education, which is about L220 (Linden currency) or about 1 Euro in real life. Visit Three's office atop PeaceTrain's Headquarters at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Four%20Bridges%20Project/211/42/33

Trill and Three highly recommend watching this video: http://www.girleffect.org
Girl effect shows that aide investments in girl's education are 300% more effective than investment in boys, because girls pour 90% of their earnings back into their local villages, and every year of a girl's education adds 15% to 25% more lifetime earnings. And the benefits amplify with each additional year of girl's education.

You can even play Girl Effect in SL on any prim using either one of these URL in the Media Tab of menu World, About Land, and dragging that prims texture to the Media Tab, and setting Media Type to Movie: http://www.zone-home.com/videobox/youtube/5kxysX4MmOU.mp4
http://slwhiteboard.com/youtube/v5/videos/5kxysX4MmOU.mp4

For more stories about Afghanistan activism in Second Life, visit these CNN iReports:
Afghan Truth in Second Life: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-348303
Trill's Art Opening for Mystic India and CAI Benefit http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-350400
Virtual Hajj in SL: A group that strongly support our Afghan SL activism: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-353216
Palestinian Homeland in Second Life, another benefit cause that strong supports our Afghan SL activism: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-343069
Imagine Festival in SL, a CNN iReport that describes the 1st major event at our Afghan SL Peace Pavilion (which is hosting events all month, supporting the release of Malalai Joya's new book): http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-340694

--- Any Gynoid reporting for CNN iReports. Please send story leads to any1gynoid (at) gmail.com