Peace pen-friends

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 12

Peace pen-friends

Sir,—Several months ago it was reported that the Mental Health Foundation was preparing kits for encouraging people to develop penfriendships with people in powerful communist countries as a way of breaking down barriers and fostering international trust at a grassroots level. I have seen or heard nothing since that one splash, and am curious whether it was just one of the many false starts where people go off half-cocked, or whether there was any substance to it. —Yours, etc., TED HICKS. July 27, 1985.

[Dell Braun, community education officer of the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, replies: "The material to which Mr Hicks is referring iS one unit of a set of 11 units prepared on peace education. That particular one is called ‘Reaching Out’ and describes how to go about finding a sister school or finding a pen-pal withinany relevant country, not necessarily the Soviet Union. The only links we know of so far have been with Japanese schools. That, along with the other 10 units, which include material on grief, communication, conflict management, inner peace, prejudice etc., are being given a trial by interested teachers in schools. When they are returned and evaluated we will then be in a position to comment about future publication and distribution. This project was carried out by the Peace Education Project and consisted of a committee with representatives from teachers, doctors, psychiatrists and other groups. Four people were hired under a Department of Labour P.E.P. programme, which was supervised by the Mental Health Foundation.”]