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| We are a small group of kids, students and adults in Kumamoto Japan, seeking ways to foster communication and long lasting friendship across borders. E-Friends brings schools around the globe to communicate together through drawings sent over e-mail to learn about each other's cultures and also about War and Peace. Irregardless of gender, race, beliefs, social class or political tendency, we offer children a chance to meet on a heart to heart level through Internet or in real life overseas exchanges. |
| 1) What does E-friends stand for? | |
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| 2) How did E-friends start? | |
The Balkan war which had come to an end in December 1995 encouraged Bruno from France to carry out the following year a computer drawing e-mail project between schools in Sarajevo (Bosnia) and at the Kumamoto YMCA (Japan) with the participation of two schools in Seattle and Phoenix (USA). That's when he first thought of founding E-Friends to promote deeper understanding of the world between children and make them get a feeling that they are all Earth's Children. | |
| 3) E-friends programs (among all of the following links only Worldraw is in English) | |
In 1998 the "Konboz project" (for Konnichiwa Bosnia, joint EFriends-Kumamoto YMCA project) saw over 100 volunteers getting involved in small and large ways to host 9 kids and 2 adults from war torn Sarajevo for 2 weeks in Kumamoto families and introduce them to various aspecys of Japanese life and culture. One of the highlights of their stay was the ºgWorld Kidºfs Peace Symposiumºh at the Kumamoto International Center, where many Japanese were moved by the stories of these youngsters relating their difficult experiences of war. Many friendships developed through ºgKonbozºh. This very successful event led us to broaden our activities to other frontiers. In March 2000 a group of 8 students from Kumamoto University set up the "Himalaya Expedition Project" and visited Nepal to support a foster family program set up by Yumi Nishihashi for helping Tibetan minorities. "Dobar Dan Japan" was the sequel to "Konboz". In march 2001 a group of 14 kids, students and adults visited Sarajevo reborn from its ashes and learned more directly about the scarring that war leaves and the attempts to bring about peace in communities torn apart. It is about this trip that we had been going to schools and institutions to share what we had learned. In 2002-2003 we continued with
new projects bringing different people from different horizons together
through the internet here in Japan and abroad. One of these projects
was Worldraw
which received "The National Federation of UNESCO Associations
in Japan" prize at the 9th Contest of "My
Town Map" (link in Japanese) |
