Janet Landry (Dallas)
Books for Baghdad
our original plans, and we hope it continues to do so. We see it as a continuous proiect that could grow to
Children crowded into barren classrooms, waiting in
Iraq. After Noor's touching slideshow in Jordan that
them. Since I had returned from my first session oT Beyond Borders in Maine, images like these were constantly on the news, with headlines like "Conditions in lraq Getting Worse"
is, the Dallas delegation was even more motivated in
line as insufficient school supplies were divided am-ong
include other learning guidbs and materials ne-eded in
reminded us of how horrific the environment in kaq still our tenacity to help our sister city.
and "Schools Shofl on Supplies." They
reminded me of Shahad, Deema, and Noor, three Iraqi girls I had befriended
in Maine. I recalled their accounts about how dangerous life was for students our age living in lraq, and how they risked their lives to attend school. Before I met Deema. who was in my dialogue group. these news bulletins were tragic. but somehow hadn't truly affected me. But after becoming such ilose friends these girls, I found myself constantly worrying about them in this violent environment, risking their lives to go to school, only
be met with inadequate supplies. lmmediately, I thought of how muih my
school had, and wanted to share this
them.
\ with
.
P
To our fortune, Bevond Borders naired
the Dallas delegirion and the'lraqi
delegation. Our goal was to work togethel
on a project, to present at our second meeting in Jordan. I proposed the idea
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to the Dallas and Iraq delegations, and thus Books for Baghdad was conceived. I contacted Eva Gordon. the program coordinator. to see if this idea wbuld work and she was amazingly supportive. It was originally set up as a waylo gather some books to send over to Iraq. Since then, however, it has grown tremendously by the ambition and determination of the
Dallas delegation, and also by the incredible suppofi of our communities and fellow Beyond Borders participants
from Dallas. For example, Samantha Richey has gathered, with the generous help of her school, loads of school supplies to be shipped to lraq. I proposed the idea to my school's Kev Club. and its members-have donateil over' 200 books. ranging from novels to children's books. Casey Zager has supplied entire sets of middle school-level books for our project, and Autumn Reeves has set up numerous book drops in libraries around her hometo^wn for Books for Baghdad.
ISISS4I
Eva and th9 rest of the Seeds of Peace staff are helping us to ship these books and supplies to Iraq. and we hopE to send them out soon. This project has grown beyond
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