Pahokee Elementary School Participates In International Pennies for Peace Campaign
The students at Pahokee Elementary I.B. World School have joined with tens of thousands of other school children around the world who share the vision and dedication to empower communities through education in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pahokee Elementary students are embarking on a “Pennies for Peace” campaign to broaden their cultural horizons and become members of a global family dedicated to peace.
How can a penny bring peace? It doesn’t buy much in Pahokee. But in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it can buy a pencil, start an education, and transform a life. In a region where terrorist organizations recruit uneducated, illiterate children, that pencil can empower a child to read, write and learn. The Pennies for Peace program goal is to encourage children, who are ultimately our future leaders, to learn the value of philanthropy by collecting pennies for global peace.
Pahokee Elementary School students will have the opportunity to study the cultures of Afghanistan and Pakistan, learn to work and share together in their Pennies for Peace campaign, and come to understand their own capacity as philanthropists – one penny at a time.
Pahokee Elementary School kicked off their campaign drive on the 100th day of school. Teachers used the book “Listen to the Wind” as a read aloud by Greg Mortenson to give students background information on how Mr. Mortenson began the Pennies for Peace project. The students will continue the drive from January 29 through the end of school. Pahokee Elementary School will partner with the Florida League of I.B. Schools to present our donations this summer at the I.B. Conference of the Americas in Miami, Florida to Greg Mortenson.
Children in over 400 mountain villages in remote northern Pakistan and Afghanistan are on the waiting list, hoping to learn in a new school. Pahokee Elementary students hope to help build a bridge of peace, one penny at a time, offering alternatives to the cycle of terrorism and war.
About Pennies for Peace
The Pennies for Peace campaign is a program of Central Asia Institute (CAI), founded by Greg Mortenson, author of the #1 New York Times best seller, Three Cups of Tea. CAI is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. Founded in 1996, CAI has built to date, nearly 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which serve more than 28,000 students, 14,000 of whom are girls. Greg’s story and more information about CAI can be found on the web at www.ikat.org.
To find out more about Pahokee Elementary School’s Pennies for Peace campaign, please contact LaWanda Harper, magnet coordinator at (561) 924-9700.
###
