When pen pals become prime ministers

Staff Report

KARACHI: Friends Without Borders (FWB), a forum to ease tensions and resolve conflicts across the world, is working to defuse disputes between Pakistan and India by increasing friendship between the children of Pakistan with the children of India through letter writing. It has opened an office in Lahore.

“We have visited hundreds of schools of both countries to contact the children and ask them to write friendship letters to each other. This friendship could defuse the conflict between the two,” said John Silliphant, FWB founding member, at a press conference at the World Social Forum media center on Monday, the fourth day of the mega event. Silliphant said that the FWB had evolved an idea, which could bring change in the region especially in India and Pakistan. “The FWB has been working since August 2005 in collaboration with local community-based organizations (CBOs) and NGOs,” he said.

“We go to every school to contact the kids and show them other kids pictures, which creates friendships with each other,” said Jocelyn Vaughan, FWB founding member from the US. She said it was a new and innovative idea, which the FWB was going to implement in India and Pakistan.

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