Congratulating Tenafly Middle School for Land Mine Removal

HON. MARGE ROUKEMA
OF NEW JERSEY
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MRS. ROUKEMA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank the students of Tenafly Middle School for the work they have done to raise money to help rid a small Balkan town half a world away of land mines. The work these students have done is an outstanding example of humanitarian concern and compassion among amazingly young individuals--these are students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

The Land Mine Awareness Club grew out of a class taught by language arts teacher Mark Hyman, called "Heroes of Conscience'' and aimed at the development of student leaders by focusing on historical figures who were models of compassion and service. Students in the class decided two years ago to focus on the land mine issue, which had been championed by Britain's Princess Diana before her 1998 death.

About two dozen students from the class formed the Land Mine Awareness Club, designed a multimedia presentation on the world land mine problem, and chose the village of Podzvizd in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina as a "sister city.'' The students began taking their presentation to churches, civic groups and other organizations throughout Bergen County, explaining the dangers of land mines and appealing for donations to help remove land mines in Podzvizd.

The students soon formed a nonprofit organization, Global Care Unlimited Inc., in order to collect donations on behalf of Podzvizd. In addition to the presentations by the club, the school's 800 students began a campaign of selling paper butterflies return to areas that were once battlefields and become victims of land mines even years after a conflict has ended. Approximately 110 million live land mines are estimated to be buried around the world today and one blows up every 22 seconds. Of those injured, 90 percent are civilians--more than one-third of them children. In nations such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, thousands of children with missing limbs are living evidence of the threat posed by land mines. And thousands of others have died as a result of the mines.

That is why I wrote to President Clinton last year, urging him to join the world effort led by Canada to ban anti-personnel land mines. In addition, I have co-sponsored the Land Mine Elimination Act, which representative of the deadly "butterfly'' model of land mine--that raised $6,000. To date, the students have raised a total of approximately $15,000 in donations. Last week, Global Care signed an agreement with the U.S. State Department, which will match the private donations dollar for dollar under its Global Humanitarian Demining Program. In all, $30,000 is now available to remove hundreds of mines from a field near a school in Podzvizd.

Global Care Unlimited declares part of its goal to be "to develop student leadership potential in the areas of organization, communication and technology in the service of humanitarian ideals.'' The students participating in this project have, in fact, learned how to establish a formal, non-profit organization, have learned communication skills by working with the local media and technological skills in putting together the multimedia presentation used in their fund-raising efforts.

Special recognition must go to Mr. Hyman, a teacher who has made a difference not only in the lives of his own students but for the residents of Podzvizd as well. These students clearly took to heart the lessons they learned in this class and put them to use--in my mind, they have become "heroes of conscience'' themselves.

Mr. Speaker, land mines are horrible enough when used during time of war by soldiers of one army against those of another. But land mines are unlike other weapons that observe a cease-fire when the war ends. Instead, they lie dormant, their locations often forgotten and difficult to find even if records are available. Civilians would prohibit federal funds from being spent to deploy new anti-personnel land mines. A total of 156 nations support a complete ban of land mines, as do international leaders such as General Norman Schwarzkopf, Pope John Paul II and Bishop Desmond Tutu. I will continue to work hard to achieve the goal of ridding the globe of this man-made menace. This horror cannot be allowed to continue.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join me in congratulating these young people on the magnanimous humanitarian effort. We can all learn from the example offered by these youth. If I may quote from the Book of Isaiah, "..... and a little child shall lead them.''