Page 12 - Dear unkown friend

Daily we hear stories and see pictures In May of 1993, when we received

of wars waged in distant places: so Soros’s urgent request for children’s

many dead, so many injured, so much letters, we were deeply involved in

suffering. We have become accustomed establishing the Soros Foundations’

to scenes of violence on the nightly Health Education Project in Central

news and often watch tragedy unfold and Eastern Europe. Working with

with detachment, as if viewing a movie. local schools in Harrisburg, which

But when we received these letters from responded favorably to the idea, we

the children of Sarajevo, it was impos- were able to gather and deliver to Soros

sible not to be touched by their person- approximately 600 letters within the

al stories of fear and suffering, their space of a week. George Soros did not

desperate cries for peace, the bewil- get into Sarajevo that time, but the let-

dered child’s question, why?
ters did. Despite the danger and diffi-

culty of travel in the war zone, friends,

The letters were written by children in associates, and representatives of the

the besieged city of Sarajevo to their Soros Foundations successfully trans-

peers in the United States as part of the ported the letters into Sarajevo.

Pen Pals for Peace Program. George

Soros conceived the idea for the pro- We did not anticipate the overwhelming

gram in May of 1993 when, in making reception these first letters would

plans for going to Sarajevo, he wanted receive. By late August, some 400 chil-

to bring the children of that city letters dren’s letters had made their way from

from kids in America. He believed that the war-torn homes and basement

such a correspondence would be a sim- schoolrooms of Sarajevo to our

ple, effective way of breaking the isola- doorstep. Only a few were written in

tion in which Sarajevo’s children lived. direct response to specific letters from

He was right. In its own way, this small American schoolchildren in May. Most

program of pen pals has had as pro- letters were addressed “To my

found an impact on life in Sarajevo as unknown American friend” or, more

many of the Soros Foundations’ more simply, “Dear unknown friend.” We

ambitious programs of assistance.
distributed the letters to many of the

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