Read the article

The KIDS-91 Newsletter
A Global Dialog for Children 10-15 Years

Issue number 6, February 4 1991.

1. SOME NEW RESPONSES

Since our last newsletter, hundreds of new responses have been received including some from India, Czechoslovakia, Israel, and Italy. Here are some samples (see #6 below for the text of these questions):

>From Maharashtra (India):
1. I am Suresh Gherde and am 13 years old boy.I love playing cricket , kho kho and kabbaddi. I am in 9th class.
2. I would like to be a military man and would like to serve my country. I will be able to know my nation when I join military.
3. I would like the world where all the people are friendly with each other. There should not be casteism. I would like all people and happy and all should be equal.
4. I will try to establish equality. I will help poor by giving them money. I will not allow anybody to possess superiority complex. I will not allow any quarrelling in the society.

>From Marketa Prenosilova in Prague (Czechoslovakia):
1. I want to be a children nurse. I would like to help them when they are ill. I will read them fairy tales and I will play with them.
2. I want the world withot the wars. I want all children in the world to have enough food. I want to live in the clean air and I want to drink good fresh watter.
3. I can sent tim dried milk to some girl in the USSR or Ethiopia but it is not enough. Better is: to learn in school especially foreign languages. When I will be grow up I will be able to cooperative with all people in the world to live better then now.

>From Kibbutz Ramat Yochanan (Israel):
1. My name is Nachshon Steiff. I am 15 years old and go to the 9th grade at school. I have 2 brothers and one maried sister (I am an uncle as well). I also had a brother who was killed in an accident in the army. All my brothers are older than me. My parrents do not live together - I live with my father, but my mother lives in the kibbutz as well. I also have a little dog, her name is "Kfitz", The hebrew word for a spring that always jumps -just like my dog. I play Water-Polo, I am the goal keeper - and I like it. I also like to listen to music (the Beatles).
2. I am not sure what I want to be when I'll grow up, maybe a writer, maybe not.
3. I want the world to be nicer. I want no air polution, and no more wars. I want peace, and that all people would have food and a place to live in. I want the world to be the best it can be - so we would live without problems and worries.
4. I think that only the people who rule the countries can do something to achieve peace - so I can't do nothing except protest about it. But I can keep the world clean if I won't destroy the nature. And if every body will give a little help it could be very good - but there must be a person who should do the first step.

>From Bologna (Italy):
1. My name's Francesca.
2. When I grow up I'd want to be a laboratory technician.
3. I'd like to change all the world because it isn't right for lots of people. We'd have to eliminate the drug and drugs addict, the Mafia and the nature pollution because it isn't possible to go on so.
4. I can't do much,but I can only hope that all the people, united, of all the world can do a new one,for the old and the young, for BLACK and for WHITE (NO RACISM!!) because we are the "world" and we make it so ugly. WE MUST REMEMBER that when the nature will finish,the people will never be able to "eat" money. This is an important thing that we CAN'T forget.

2. LOT OF ACTION IN KIDCAFE

The global discussion list KIDCAFE has been set up for those kids who have responded to the four questions. The following sample messages should give you an idea of what is going on there:

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 91 21:12:52 +0100
From: ik208@VIGGO.BLH.NO (Norway)
Subject: From Anja to Chris in Nottingham, UK

Hi Chris! Thank you for your letter!
Today we went with my class to the town hall to write our names in the condolence book since our king, Olav 5th died last thursday night (17. january). The schools were closed friday 18. The burial seremony is on wednesday 31. (They are sending it directly on british TV too).
today, we changed our groups in my classroom. Now I'm sitting next to Shadoman. She's from Kurdistan. See you... Anja

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 91 11:07:27 CST
From: rodin!school18@PILOT.NJIN.NET (USA)
Subject: To Nachson

Dear Nachson,
We have just heard a newscast Here in Paterson, NJ about a new scud missile attack...it is now about 11:45am EST..on January 25...we are very worried...
here are some comments from the students in a class From PS 18 in Paterson, NJ:
Julie Sakir-I care very much about your welfare and I realy don't like what is going on over there...because other people are dying because of Saddam Hussein. I hope you are OK.
Christina Gearhart-Don't be scared and be strong.
Javier Iznaga-I hope you are OK, try not to think about it and I hope you get thru it.
Tania Sanchez-I just could tell you to be faithful, to pray to the Lord for this war to end. I have faith this war will end soon. I know how you are feeling now.
Jessica Torres-I know how you are feeling right now. I know that if that was me I would've felt the same way. Just hold on and hang in there.
Your letter moved us deeply and a copy of it was passed to everyone in our school..we are praying for you.
Your friends from Paterson, NJ, USA.

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 91 22:45:07 IST
From: CETEK63@TECHNION (Israel)
Subject: Re: To Nachson

To all of my dear friends in Paterson NJ.
Thank you very much for your concern. I have heared about the scud attack as well... Actualy, I heared it very well. The two scuds that were aimed to Haifa were intercepted by the PATRIOTs just above my home. The whole house shook well.
Fortunately no one was hurt from these two scuds, but the missiles that fell in tel aviv cused the death of one person and injured 40 others.
We are all well, but I am very very sorry that we had to get into this war. I hope that in the future, after this mess ends, there will be no more such people as Sadam Hossain, that cause so much pain to their own people and to others.
Nice thing about the speed of this list: the scuds were here just 4 hours ago a go, and your letter was already waiting for me!
Thank you again for your concern.
Nachshon from "scuddy" Israel.

3. PROGRESS REPORT

The activity in Central Europe is increasing. We expect many responses from new countries like France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Poland, and Austria soon. And then there is Algirdas Paktas in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Dr. Leon Peshtmaldjian in Yerevan, Armenia. We are always very glad when people in "conflict areas" want to give their children this opportunity!
Talking about conflicts, KIDS-91 now has contacts in Saudi Arabia, Chile, Colombia, and Sri Lanka, as well as in more peaceful corners of the world like New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Many of our newcomers are joining our global forum, the KIDS- 91 discussion list. Some subscribe directly. Others participate through parallel activites on participating networks. Reviewing the list of subscribers to KIDS-91@vm1.nodak.edu shows that it has become a global forum in the true meaning of the word. (Send a message with the command REVIEW KIDS-91 in the body of the text to listserv@vm1.nodak.edu to get the list of subscribers.)
"Is KIDS-91 only for teachers?" A business man in Puerto Rico asked the question the other day.
The answer is NO. Certainly there are many educators. But, there are also parents, people working in preventive child health care, with culturally deprived children, with children having speech disabilites, and then there are those who simply think that we have to give all children on earth a chance!
Among the responses received recently, a batch was sent to us from Biloxi, Mississippi (USA) on floppy disk! Besides being a great example of parent/teacher/student cooperation, we want to use it here to emphasize that it is perfectly okay to send responses on floppy disks!
The war in the Middle East is making it difficult for many people to travel. Still, people from from Leningrad in the north to Buenos Aires in the south are expressed an interest in going to Norway for the Celebration on the 12th of May.
The war has led to another development in the KIDS-91 project - a new discussion list called KIDPEACE. This discussion is for kids ages 10-15 to share their feelings about war and conflict in the world today. We decided to separate the discussion about the war from the other topics kids are talking about in KIDCAFE because kids tend to feel a little more comfortable talking about their pets, families, school, etc. when they first join the KIDCAFE and we didn't want kids to get intimidated by what can be an intense dialog - especially when 15-year-old Nachshon in Israel is reporting about the Patriot missiles intercepting SCUD missiles above his house!!! This new discussion list will also help us to attract attention to the KIDS-91 project -- and thus involve more kids!!

4. CREATIVE CHALLENGE

It's time to have the kids start working on their contributions to the Creative Challenge. The challenge is as follows:
The children are encouraged to express their future visions ('how they see themselves as adults in their desired future world') in as many creative ways as they can think of.
They can do it by using traditional art forms by submitting a drawing, a painting, a piece of music, or a drama. Other ideas include making use of computer graphics, photographic displays, hypermedia presentation techniques, audiotapes, video, or multimedia technologies.
A Latvian boy is working on a piece of music. Others are planning the use of video. Many drawings and paintings have already been received by mail.
All exhibits will be automatically entered into the KIDS-91 Creative Challenge which will be judged by an international panel. The most creative presentations will be publically awarded prizes and included in an exhibition to be displayed throughout the world after May 1991.
There will be a KIDS-91 Celebration in Arendal, Norway on May 12th, 1991. All entries in the challenge will be showcased for the world to see on that day.
Remember: have the students mark their submission clearly with name, age and place/school/country. If the contribution is selected to be exhibited, then the audience will be able to know who made it.
Mail the Creative Contributions to KIDS-91, c/o Odd de Presno, 4815 Saltrod, Norway, and allow time for the postman. Deadline: April 30th, 1991!
The KIDS-91 Celebration in Arendal will be an integral part of this town's Children's Week, starting on the 4th of May. There will be performances by national theater/performance/puppet groups ("Free groups"), a children's theatre group from Sweden, the famous boys choir from Riga, Latvia (46 boys) will give two concerts. There will be an exhibition of Latvian children book illustrations, an exhibition of Polish sculptures for adults and children, as well as parades, clowns, music in the street, and much more.
We are looking forward to see you all!

5. DOCUMENTS AND FILES

The following files are now available by email from the archive of KIDS-91@vm1.nodak.edu:
Newsletter #5 translated into German. File name: NEWS-5G.
"Overall Proposal for Support", an application for support of your local KIDS-91 activities. Can be used as an appendix to your applications for money, modems, PCs, trip to Norway on May 12th, etc. File names: SPONSORA and APPEND-D .
A summary of UNICEF's State of the World's Children report is available in the file SOWC-SUM. It can be used by teachers and parents to educate their kids about how other kids in the world live.
Two other files, LESSON1 and LESS2-5, contain a set of five lesson plans on global hunger and poverty developed by two teachers for RESULT, the organization that coordinated the thousands of candlelight vigils that took place in advance of the World Summit on Children in September 1990.
The file ARTICLE contains an article about KIDS-91 submitted to the online newsletter Netweaver (The Electronic Networking Association).
The file GEOCLOCK tells how to use a shareware program to show a nice color map on an IBM compatible PC with identification of all KIDS-91 sites. Accompanying files: GEOCLK40.KIDSARC and GEO-DAT.
New files with children's responses are available in the files RES0191A, RES0191B, and RES0191C.
Send a message to listserv@vm1.nodak.edu to get a list of all available files in the archives of the KIDS-91 discussion forum. In the body of the mail, write the command:

INDEX KIDS-91

The resulting file will also give you a short introduction to retrieving individual files from our archives. If you have problems downloading these files, please email the editor.

6. ABOUT THE KIDS-91 PROJECT

The objective of KIDS-91 is to get as many 10-to-15-year-old children as possible involved in a GLOBAL dialog continuing until May 12th 1991. We want their responses to these questions: 1) Who am I? 2) What do I want to be when I grow up? 3) How do I want the world to be better when I grow up? 4) What can I do now to make this happen?
We would also like them to illustrate their future vision, for example in a drawing, a video tape, or something else.
On May 12th, 1991, the children will be invited to "chat" with each other in a global electronic dialog. Exhibitions of selected parts of the responses will be sent back to the world for the children to see and enjoy.
Our Internet/BITNET discussion lists, KIDS-91 and KIDCAFE, have quickly become key meeting places for people involved with the KIDS-91 project.
To join KIDS-91 send the command SUB KIDS-91 Yourname to LISTSERV@vm1.NoDak.EDU. (For example: SUB KIDS-91 Ole Olsen.) The command should be in the BODY of the text.
The KIDS-91 newsletter is an information bulletin for participants, sponsors, teachers, mediators, promoters, and others.
Suggestions and contributions to the next issue are invited. We hope to port it within 45 days or so. Write the Editor to receive future issues of the newsletter.

Editor/Project director:		Odd de Presno, Saltrod, Norway.
Mail address: Telefax:		Saltrod, Norway (Europe). +47 41 27111
Online addresses: Internet: UUCP/EUnet: DASnet: Saltrød Horror Show BBS:		opresno@ulrik.uio.no uunet!ulrik.uio.no!opresno [DEZNDP]opresno SYSOP. Phone: +47 41 31378.

If you want to help out with KIDS-91, or participate, contact the editor, or one of the following persons:

You can also write to KIDS-91, c/o SciNet, 131 Bloor Street West, Suite 200, Box 326, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1R8, Canada