Tuesday, December 21st, 2004

The Kids Initiative: 1st Session with Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea

"I think that this video conference was great because we improved our knowledge ... and we really got rid of our fear."

Recently the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific Region inaugurated a series of videoconferences called the Kids Initiative involving kids aged 10 to 13 in East Asia. The main goal of the program is to provide kids with opportunities to gain an understanding of cultural diversities and the similarities and differences in the development challenges faced by their countries.

In each session, kids have the chance to meet peers from other countries via the GDLN and share with each other knowledge, stories, songs and dances as well as experiences from their volunteer work in various kids' organizations.

The first session saw regional representatives from the Girl Guides Association in Sri Lanka meeting counterparts from the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Associations of Papua New Guinea. In addition to the participating sites, the session was observed by educational specialists in Australia, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, and Japan.

The kids sang each other their national anthems and some wore their national dress. All of them were very excited to meet other kids even though they were thousands of kilometers away. It was terrific to see them all so eager to share stories with others and to learn about life in another country.

After the session, the kids expressed their feelings about the conference in drawings and letters, and we're very pleased to be able to present a gallery of their work here. Kids are the most vital resource of any country, and we're extremely happy to report that the success of this first session bodes well for many more sessions to come.

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