6/21/2007 - Students Sign AFS Petition to Promote Peace Through Student Exchange
American Chronicle
Newswire Services
MILLIONS TO SIGN IN SUPPORT OF PEACE THROUGH STUDENT EXCHANGE.
New York, NY—The world’s young people are rising up to say enough to wars and conflicts that threaten our planet, and the solution starts with more student exchange programs to promote understanding and peace.
AFS, a world leader in student exchange programs, will host World Signing Days this month to launch a one-million signature petition drive asking the world’s leaders to expand student exchange programs around the world to promote a new kind of diplomacy. World Signing Days, scheduled for the last week in June, will have students and other supporters sign the petition in major signing ceremonies in nine cities worldwide. On these days exchange program participants will be among the first to sign the petition electronically stating that our young people are ready to promote peace and mutual understanding worldwide.
“Our young people are our best ambassadors, and they can carry the message,” said Francisco “Tachi” Cazal, president and CEO of AFS Intercultural Programs. “As our petition says, friendship leads to understanding and understanding leads to peace.”
On the 60th anniversary year of the AFS exchange programs, started after World War II by former volunteer ambulance drivers with a mission to promote understanding and avoid future conflicts among people, the petition calls on the leaders of the world to boost their support of student exchange programs from one country to another around the world.
“People must realize how important peace is for all of us. War isn’t really the answer to any kind of problem that exists out there,” wrote Caroline R. from Germany in the Petition web site at www.exchanges4peace.org . “To get this message across to people we must teach tolerance and understanding.”
The AFS exchange programs provide life-changing experiences in foreign countries for the students who serve as ambassadors of their native cultures. The programs, which enable students to live in foreign countries with host families, change the world one person at a time. These programs have a multiplier effect as bonds of mutual understanding are created within the host families, the host schools, the local communities, and in society at large.
“Friends don’t go to war,” said Rebecca Messner, a former AFS participant from the U.S to Italy in 2002,“So let’s make some friends in the world. That’s why I’m signing.”
The World Signing Day ceremonies will be held in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago in the U.S. and in Rome, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Frankfurt and Tokyo around the world.
 |
Printer Friendly |
