STORIES FROM ASIA

Javid Iqbal
Principal, Cambridge Cadet School
Pakistan
PTPI School and Classroom Program

In these turbulent times of great social and ideological upheavals, when the present and future generations are facing the real threat of terrorism, there is a dire and urgent need to mass up the forces of peace. This [School and Classroom Program] is a positive contributing factor against terrorism. Let all humanity stand as a rock.

Joanne
Ararat Community College
Victoria, Australia
Ventures Project (i-EARN)

Hi everyone: Details of a new and exciting project that I presented in Beijing are now fully available. The website with all the details is located at http://www.araratcc.vic.edu.au/users/web/araratcc/program1.htm. This project is sponsored by The Myer Foundation and is managed by Museum Victoria and the Asia Education Foundation (AEF), Australia in partnership with I*EARN Australia (iearn.ventures). The Australia-China writing project will feature students' writing about their hopes and aspirations for the future. The results of this project will be celebrated at the AEF's Linking Latitudes 2001 Conference in Shanghai, April 15-18 2001. Australian educators who have an interest in developing curriculum on Asia and in particular China will attend this conference. For more information regarding the conference see -http://www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/aef/shanghai

Virginia
Bairnsdale Secondary College
Bairnsdale, Australia
First Peoples Project (i-EARN)

Hi all: This is an update on the 1998 Humanitarian Project. The Humanitarian Project operates as a part of The First Peoples' Project. There are two parts of this project, supporting the Sumu students in Nicaragua and supporting the Karen students in Thailand. This update is about recent happenings with the Karen students in Thailand. Earlier this year a teacher aide was employed with money raised by participants in The First Peoples' Project. This enabled a teacher aide to be employed for two years in one of the Karen schools we are working with. Previously, there were 75 students to one teacher. This week 70 - 80 blankets are being taken to the Karen villages by Siriluck. These blankets were given to us by Brenda Venters, the coordinator of The Longest Knitted Scarf Project (another I*EARN project!). Scarves were knitted by I*EARN students and teachers from around the world. The community of Lara Primary School have sewn these blankets into blankets, and Brenda asked us if we would like some for the Karen students.

Guan
Student International Program Director
Chengdu # 9 Middle School
China

Hello, friends! I'm very happy to tell everyone that Chengdu Special School has joined iEARN with the help of my high school, Chengdu #9 Middle School. On December 25th, X'mas Day, we held a party with them during which we exchanged our holiday wishes and small gifts. As the first Spcial School which has ever joined iEARN among over 5,000 schools all over the world, Chengdu Special School's staff will try their best to contribute to our projects and communicate with people all over the world over the Internet. We'll help the students post their very first essays about "Laws of LIfe" soon. Also we recorded the whole party with a digital video camera, we'll update the video to our program web site soon.

Subude
I*EARN-China Coordinator
Beijing, China
Star of Hope Project (i-EARN)

Dear Friends: The Star of Hope (SOH) project is about helping students in rural China to go back to school. We encouraged people from every corner of the world to join in. First of all, as the project coordinator, it is a plesure for me to acknowledge the help from Naimie Lundi, Jillaina Smith and Students of theHolocaust/genocide Project. PROJECT IDEA: To provide scholarships that will give the opportunity to Chinese students to go to school and have these students participate and share their experiences in I*EARN. In this way, we are all equal teachers and learners.With best wishes,

Terumi
JEARN (International Education and Resource Network-Japan)
http://www.jearn.jp office@jearn.jp
Kids Can Help (NetAid)

Hi! It's Terumi: How are you?? I read your information about the Quilt project, sending quilts to Afghanistan by Net Aid. There is a quilt and other things created by Japanese students and Australian students (Virginia's students) in a collaborative work project. I guess they also would like to be part of this! What is better to send the quilts to you or to Net Aid directly?? When you have time, please look at this web page showing students' process! http://www.jearn.jp/JEARNzirei/koishiwara/

Jharna
Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan School (Ages, 10 onwards)
Karachi PA Pakistan
Partners: Aghanistan, Japan.

I-EARN is a very good and informative project. We got a great amount of information from it and it has enabled us to work with computers and on the Internet. We enjoy learning and I am feeling very proud to be in my school sitting at my new computer lab doing the works on I-EARN. It is a way to improve our knowledge it is also a way to communicate to our pen friends or to the foreigners and helps us to understand peoples culture by talking to them.

Beenish Sms Secondary School (ages: 13-16)
Karachi, SD Pakistan
Partners: Pakistan