HEALING THE WOUNDS OF WAR
TENAFLY STUDENTS RAISE $15,000 TO RID BOSNIAN VILLAGE OF MINES

By Richard Cowen

One step is all it takes.

All it takes to be killed, if you happen to live in any of the 90 strife-torn countries where land mines mark the boundary between peace and
war, love and hatred.

Or one step is all it takes to begin healing the wounds of war, if you are a student at Tenafly Middle School committed to breaking down the barriers. In September 1999, about 25 students got together and called themselves the Landmine Awareness Club. They adopted a village in Bosnia called Podzidz and pledged to rid that little town of every land mine still stuck in the soil
from the recent war.

On Thursday, they made good on the promise by handing a $15,000 check to the
U.S. State Department and the Slovenia International Fund. As part of the
federal government's mine-removal policy, the State Department matched the
donation and will use the money to hire private contractors to sweep the
mines from Podzidz.

"I don't think we've changed the world, but I do believe we will change one
village," said Ashley Woolsey, 14, the club president. "And I'm sure the
people in Bosnia will be thankful that someone cares about them."
The latest statistics point to a deepening global crisis. There are now 110
million live land mines in the ground; one blows up every 22 seconds. Of
those injured, 90 percent are civilians - and more than one-third are
children.

Members of the Landmine Awareness Club presented the check during a ceremony in the middle school auditorium, as about 600 students cheered. The money was collected from the community by the students; the poetry that club members read to the audience was an even more personal contribution.
"One step. All it takes to kill," read Jian Lann Chang, a sixth-grader. "One
step, and a piece of humanity is taken. You are the 'Apocalypse' itself. You
possess the 'END.'"

As Chang read his poem, the audience could see the club's logo, a big, gaily
decorated butterfly, hanging on the right side of the stage. Less clear to
the audience was a sinister message: The butterfly is also a type of land
mine, small enough to fit in the palm of a child's hand.

To raise the money, club members set up a non-profit corporation, Global
Care Unlimited Inc., to solicit donations. Students then created a video and
made presentations to community groups, such as the Tenafly Rotary Club.
The students - boys and girls in Grades 6 though 8 - did all the work
themselves, researching the land mine issue and producing a video to
accompany the presentations. The project was the type of interdisciplinary
learning experience that schools favor these days.

But the students say teacher Mark Hyman, the club moderator, was the driving
force behind the project. Hyman taught the students they could make a
difference if they believed they could.

Most times, the necessary action was routine: writing the club newsletter,
making phone calls to prospective donors, setting up appointments with the
leaders of community groups. Along the way, the group's original 25 members
dwindled to around a dozen.

"From the beginning Mr. Hyman stressed commitment and what it would take to
get this done," said student Max Rosmarin, 14. "There was a lot of sweat and
blood that went into this."

Then he stopped and thought again. "We didn't lose any blood," he said.
Hyman called the project "an ongoing experiment in compassion," which he
said "showed the capacity of children to make a difference in the world."
"These children dared to imagine that they could educate Tenafly and the
surrounding communities about the worldwide land mine crisis," Hyman said.
Donald F. "Pat" Patierno, the director of the State Department's Office of
Global Humanitarian Demining Programs, recalled traveling through the
Balkans and seeing minefields next to schools. And Patierno said the civil
war in Angola has left so many fields littered with mines that the country
cannot feed itself.

"Right now, there is not enough money to remove all the mines," Patierno
told the students. "But you are saving lives and alleviating the suffering
of others through your efforts."

Tenafly students plan to follow the money all the way to Bosnia this summer.
Plans are now in the works for a student delegation to travel to Podzidz to
make sure the mines have been removed.

Woolsey said the next step is to keep the land mine crusade going. "We hope
that other schools or organizations want to get involved," she said.
Staff Writer Richard Cowen's e-mail address is cowen(at)northjersey.

The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
Staff Photographer: Danielle P. Richards