Connecting Our Villages: The Afghan Sister Schools Project at the Carolina Friends School

Abstract

The Carolina Friends School has sustained a peace education effort grounded in a sister-school relationship with a school in rural Afghanistan since 2002. Activities at this Quaker school involve students from preschool through high school in pen pal friendships, ten-day diary exchanges, peace-quilt exchanges, fund-raisers, and a variety of in-class programs about Islam and Afghan culture. Funds have been used in Afghanistan to furnish classrooms, equip playgrounds, and support teacher training. The project aims to educate students about cultural differences underlying conflict in the world and to seek a more peaceful world through building relationships among the sister-school students. Figure 1. Students at the new Tob Chi School in Afghanistan.