PENPALS

Darfur Library Project

In the last year, the situation in Darfur has actually gotten a lot worse, and at this time, our NGO in Darfur can’t ensure that letters sent to Darfur will receive a reply.

But on the other hand, receiving a letter or a drawing from someone far away is at least as wonderful as receiving a book; so we do hope you’ll encourage your students to write letters and/or draw pictures to send. Just explain to them that the letter is a gift to someone far away and that they probably will not receive a response; the letter is to bring hope and joy to someone they don’t even know, possibly a teenager just like them but who has lost everything.

It’s very important that the letters be appropriate and sensitive, so you will need to discuss this with your students before they write/draw them. While we’re sure you can guide your students, here are some general tips --

Letters/drawings should not include anything that might be seen as sexual in nature — even a cartoon style drawing of an attractive girl that shows any of her body, as would be popular and fairly innocent for our kids, would not be appropriate, for example. Telling about families and friends is great; talking graphically about boyfriends and girlfriends is not. Offering compassion for the receiver’s general situation is wonderful and asking about the receiver’s culture is great; asking detailed questions about the violence is not. Photographs should not be sent at this time. And students should remember that they are writing to people who may not have enough to eat, who may have lost families, etc. -- talking about their latest gadgets or clothes, for example, would not be appropriate.

In other words — we want to make sure that these letters/pictures not only do not offend anyone who receives them, but that they make it past any government official who might be involved.

It’s probably best if you just include the school’s mailing address as the return address on letters and don’t have students put their home addresses.

Put the letters/drawings in a mailing envelope, and mail them to The Darfur Library Project, 17 Perry Street, New York, NY, 10014. We will include them with the final shipment. We may use some of the letters in promotional material as we continue to seek funding; but we will not include anything more than first names if we do.

-Thank You