Fawad Mohammadi (in pic) has spent half his life peddling maps and dictionaries to foreigners on a street of trinket shops in Kabul. Now the 14-year-old Afghan boy with bright green eyes is getting ready for a trip down the red carpet at the Oscars.

Mohammadi’s walk down the red carpet is owing to a worldwide campaign to raise money to pay for his trip. Fawad (14), stars in the Oscar-nominated live-action short film Buzkashi Boys but had no hopes of getting to the ceremony in Los Angeles on February 24 until the Afghan Film Project launched a fund-raising effort.