Page 10 - Dear unkown friend

schools that had participated earlier, survives, jumping from the horrors of

with the understanding that they would war into a place of peace and happiness

write back. And thus began the formal within the space of a sentence. A heart-

Pen Pals for Peace Program. On breaking description of a bombed-out

September 27, 1993, approximately home turns into a wish list for MTV, ice

1,000 “Dear friend in Bosnia and cream, and even “the normal school

Herzegovina” letters were carried into life,” with an outraged declaration in

Sarajevo. To date, more than 3,000 chil- the margin: “I hate rice and beans!”

dren in Sarajevo and the United States

have participated in the program.
Some of the letters selected for this

book were written in English by the

We also did not anticipate the impact children. Others were written in the

these letters would have on our own native language and translated. We

lives. We studied the drawings and photographed the letters, drawings,

reread the letters again and again, and envelopes to share with you the

drawn to them each time we passed the actual look and feel and sound of these

desk where they waited to be distrib- personal documents from the war.

uted. The letters demanded to be read. Read the letters in the original or the

They need to be read. The words, so translation. Listen to these children.

innocent yet powerful, immediately Feel their sense of urgency. And,

evoke the feelings of this war: horror, through their words, may the children

frustration, helplessness, and fear. At who have needlessly suffered and died

the same time we can still find among the be remembered not only in our

words surprising evocations of love, thoughts but in our actions.

humor, and hope. They are the words of

children who have grown up quickly and

understand the real value of childhood.

Susan Shapiro and Lisa Pilsitz

Most of all, these letters are a powerful Coordinators, Pen Pals for Peace

testimony to the resiliency of children. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

They show how the spirit copes and
May 1994

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