Write to Friendship

The fastest and easiest way to teach is to educate them young.

Routes 2 Roots invites school children to send message of peace to their counterparts in Pakistan through letters

The fastest and easiest way to teach is to educate them young. Thats the reason we are working towards sowing the seed of love for our counterparts in Pakistan right at the school level, says Rakesh Gupta,founder of Routes 2 Roots,a non-profit-organisation,as he rolls out a project,Oral Histories,with the support of the British High Commission,Islamabad. As per the project,they are inviting students to write letters to their fellow students in Pakistan and share their tales with one another. The purpose is to bring students from across the border close to each other,that too in a fashion that no hate talks can shake their foundation, he says. The idea is to bridge the distance by propagating friendship.

While the initiative has already taken off well in Mumbai and Delhi,they are now set to invite schools from Chandigarh. DAV,Sector 8,and Mount Carmel School,Sector 47,will be among the first to receive an invite. We are still in the process of identifying more schools, says Gupta,who adds that the schools are shortlisted keeping the requirements of the programme in mind.

Weve chosen a combination of school children in the age group 10 to 14,coming from both the underprivileged and the upper strata of society, he says. Under the project Citizens Archive,its NGO partner in Pakistan,will simultaneously run a16-month information exchange programme between the two countries involving the participation of 1,200 secondary school children in the first session.

They will share their histories,traditions and will make scrapbooks. He feels that it will provide a common platform for young minds across border to exchange thoughts and cultures and eradicate the prejudice of hatred among the two nations. In the second phase,these pen pals will approach their parents and grandparents and ask them to share stories and memories of the past. Grandparents who migrated during the partition will be asked to share their fond memories of their country they had migrated from. The programme will ultimately culminate with a group of selected students from both countries being sent to a camp in a third SAARC country. The road to friendship has taken 64 long years. The exchange programme is another attempt to bridge the gap.

Gupta says that the first round of letters has reaped a positive response. Though,the programme is not a compulsory one,Im glad student have so far been very enthusiastic to participate. Besides,the programme has changed the notion of students. This,as children from India have moved on from seeing Pakistan as a country that was involved in the 9/11 attack,to one which is rich in culture. As for the students in Pakistan,we have been told that while earlier they thought Hindus were averse to Muslims,they now share a strong bond, says Gupta.

Hes hopeful of getting a good response from the city as well. Heres to bridging distances.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram