Northfielder Dina Fesler, head honcho at Children’s Culture Connection and War Kids Relief, has been in Afghanistan since Nov. 24 to set up operations for a U.S./Afghan Junior Investor Program, traveling and filming with Kelly Kinnunen of NEED Magazine. (More on the WKR blog here.) But life has intervened and she’s now taken on an emergency medical mission.
Tag: <span>War Kids Relief</span>
I first met Gunnar Swanson and Dina Fesler of War Kids Relief back in January when they made a presentation at College City Beverage in Dundas. We later hosted them…
Our guest this week was Gunnar Swanson, Managing Director of the War Kids Relief project, updating us on their recently completed Young Ambassadors Pilot Program and plans for the future. (See our previous blog posts on the project.)
Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes.
Locally Grown’s historical roots go back to my days when I worked at Utne Reader. So when I saw both Lynette Lamb and Jessica Paxton (former Utne-ites) at last Friday…
For Xmas, I sent one of my sons the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I’d seen Beah on The Daily Show a while ago so when I saw the book at Monkey See Monkey Reads while doing my xmas shopping on xmas eve eve, I bought it.
I had already read Bonnie Obremski’s RepJ article a month earlier (Nationwide project soliciting participation from Northfield youth) describing War Kids Relief, a project being run by Northfield/Dennison-based Children’s Culture Connection (CCC). And I’d seen all the photos of the Iraqi kids on the walls of the Hideaway Coffeehouse and Winebar.
A Minnesota-based non-profit is spending the next few months partnering children in New York City, Washington D.C., and Northfield with children in Iraq in an effort to build closer ties between the nations.
“We thought about Minneapolis, but decided on Northfield,” said Pam Middleton, executive director of War Kids Relief, which is a program of the Children’s Culture Connection non-profit.
Middleton will help select about two dozen eighth- and ninth-grade students across Northfield to participate. Each child needs to submit an application in school to be considered.
“Northfield is Middle America, but it’s also a special place. The citizens here are so engaged,” she said.
The children Middleton helps select will attend at least three afternoon gatherings in January, February and March at the Northfield Public Library. There, War Kids Relief organizers will help each Northfield teen begin a pen-pal kind of relationship with an Iraqi child. The youth will exchange letters, artwork and videos. The Northfield children will learn about Iraqi culture by hearing stories, playing Iraqi games and eating samples of the region’s food.