PEACEPALS ADDRESS BANK

August 1996 marked the 50th year of Independence and Partition. India and Pakistan, two countries had emerged due to a host of complex and historic reasons and their birth had been accompanied by unimaginable level of cruelty, pain and barbarism emerged in blood and death of thousands of innocent people. Confronting the area of prejudice, exclusion and hate as a part of the KHOJ project for three consecutive years, we had found that one of the stumbling blocks in adult minds parents and teachers was the whole issue of Partition. Adults were passing on this burden to the children, most of the time unconsciously and unintentionally. However, the damage was already done. The only logical extension of the KHOJ experiment therefore would be an attempt to set up a communication between the children of these two countries to give them a fair chance to make up their mind on how they would like to deal with this issue. Thus, the concept of AMAN was born.

In the initial phase of AMAN, we asked the children of Bombay International School, Would you be at all interested in linking up with children in Pakistan? After some discussion and thought, they said, Yes certainly, but provided, you give us a module, an entire session on two issues that bother us: the issue of Partition (why and how it happened) and the issue of terrorism in Kashmir. Once we are clear on this, we are definitely interested. We, therefore, honouring the students candour, spoke about the issues in detail. Symbolically, a Pledge for Peace was taken by students of Bombay International School and C.A.S. (Centre fo4 Studies) in Karachi on August 14 and 15, 1996.

AMAN, the olive branch of KHOJ, has been connecting the children of India and Pakistan through letter writing since its inception. Children in Mumbai and Karachi have been expressing their dilemma and confusions through interesting questions. They have learnt to have colossal faith in each other which is priceless in today’s political context. The Centre for Advanced Studies School in Karachi and the Bombay International School were the first to join AMAN while many other schools in Kolkata, Bangalore and Delhi have been proactive in being a part of this program. Recently, we have succeeded in connecting with the children and teachers of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Apart from schools, individual children from both countries are writing to us to help them find a PEACEPAL in the other country. Hence AMAN has opened an ADDRESS BANK for those children who wish to make a penpal. Write in your request to us, with age and hobby details, at the address below and we hope to find you an address in Pakistan soon.