Local Video
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| Students will correspond with Iraqi kids |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Friday, December 5, 2008 8:52 pm
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NORTHFIELD — Watching her two children — adopted from China and India — grow up in rural Minnesota has given Dina Fesler a few ideas about the importance of cultural exchange.
Fesler, a former Minneapolis fashion designer, decided to quit her career and start a non-profit organization, Children’s Culture Connection, after adopting her daughter Daisy from China in 2005. The organization was born when Fesler returned to her home in Dennison, Minn., and realized that, as important as it was to keep Daisy connected to her home culture, it was also equally important to educate Daisy’s peers and relatives — raising their awareness and dispelling any misconceptions that they might have about Daisy or her background.
Now, Fesler is hoping to take the idea of cultural exchange one step further.
Fesler, along with author Charles London and Baghdad, Iraq, native Sandra Hakim, has created War Kids Relief, a forward-thinking pen pal program developed under the auspices of Children’s Culture Connection.
The goal of program is to connect U.S. eighth- and ninth-graders in New York, Washington, D.C., and Northfield with their counterparts in three Iraqi cities, Baghdad, Kirkuk and Suleimanya. Through that pen pal network, Fesler hopes to construct a “peace-building” exchange, where 25 students at each location send letters, videos and artwork, via translator, to teenagers across the Atlantic.
Fesler hopes the three-month pilot program, which begins this coming January, will educate and connect children across the globe, promote tolerance and erase some of the negative stereotypes that Iraqi and American children may have about one another.
Northfield students enrolled in the program will meet for three, two-hour sessions in the Northfield Public Library, where they will write letters with their pen pals, write blogs, learn about Iraqi culture and history and create art projects and videos to exchange with the Iraqi students in Northfield’s sister city, Suleimanya.
The first session of the pen pal program will be held on Jan. 10.
“This is a 21st Century world where we cannot be closing ourselves in,” said Pam Middleton, the director of War Kids Relief. “We have got to break down the barriers of fear and ignorance that lead people to isolate and act badly toward one another.”
To help facilitate the program, Hakim and London, who has worked with Refugees International and wrote a book based on his experiences, will visit each of the three programs in the U.S., assisting with the project and bringing a first-hand perspective to War Kids Relief. War Kids Relief has also paired with the Darstan Group for Children Media, an organization working with Iraqi children.
“Young people have a very unique perspective of the world,” London said. “They feel the effects of the adult world with very little power to do anything about it.”
“What we’re trying to do is give them another strategy for dealing with the problems that they face; it’s a peace-making program on both sides.”
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
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