STUDENTS TAKE AIM AT DEADLY LAND MINES

By John A. Gavin

The exhibit in front of Tenafly Middle School is chilling: chipped cement
fragments, pointed objects, and round metal disks cordoned off with yellow
rope and warning signs.

The display is a replica of land mines - explosives that can maim and kill. The mock minefield represents an initiative by students to create awareness about land mines in various parts of the world and raise funds to remove some land mines in war-torn Bosnia.

On Monday, students kicked off Global Care Unlimited Inc., a non-profit venture to raise money to clear a minefield near a school in western Bosnia. The goal is to raise $30,000 to fund the painstaking and costly process. Organized by Mark Hyman, a sixth-grade teacher, the fund-raising project is spearheaded by the school's Land Mines Awareness Club, a 10-member student group that Hyman advises.

"Efforts like this instill compassion and a global perspective, and recognize that children's moral voice can have a global power in communities," said Hyman, who has coordinated several human rights projects. "We've been taking this one step at a time."

Behind the scenes, the project shows months of planning and research with
community backing.

Global Care Unlimited's board of directors comprises parents, community leaders, and teachers who will funnel donations to Handicapped International Inc., a humanitarian group that sponsors charitable projects abroad. On Monday, Mayor Ann A. Moscovitz saluted the group's goals and read a borough proclamation supporting the effort.

"This is a thing we do that's larger than Tenafly," Moscovitz said. "This is real. We're going to save lives. . . . I'm so proud of you. You've seen a problem, you reach out, and do something to correct it."

The school has "adopted" an 800-student school in the village of Podzvidz in
Bosnia, and Tenafly has proclaimed Podzvidz its "sister city" for the year.
Students in each class are receiving packets with information about land
mines and and donor sheets for contributions.

Club members tell fellow students about the horrors of land mines so they
can tell their parents and others they know.

The club also will make presentations to civic groups, community organizations, churches, and local businesses, Hyman said.

In the presentation, club members will give oral accounts of atrocities, show slides of maimed children, and cite deadly statistics - all while somber music plays in the background.

For information, club members researched and downloaded images from the Internet, and a few have written poems that depict strife in war-torn countries.

Max Rosmarin, for example, wrote a moving account about how a young girl,
lured by a deadly "butterfly" land mine dropped by a helicopter, innocently
runs to touch it and and wakes up in the hospital to find she has lost a
leg.

"I'm writing what I thought might happen, writing about possible scenarios,"
said Rosmarin, an eighth-grader.

Students tell of horrors all over the world - Somalia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Angola, countries still reeling from war.

"It gives me a broader view of helping people who are not as fortunate as
me," said Ashley Woolsey, another eighth-grader.

There are 30 replicas of mines, built by the school's art department, to remind students what some of their counterparts in different parts of the world have to go through just to go to school.

The displays include replicas of butterfly mines, anti-tank mines, booby traps that spew nails and metal when stepped on - deadly weapons that cost about $3 to plant and $300 to remove.

A replica will be removed for each $1,000 raised.

Students say it's a worthwhile exchange.

"We have the potential to save some lives," said sixth-grader Jian Lann
Chang.

For more information about the land mine detonation project, write Global
Care Unlimited Inc., P.O. Box 923, Tenafly, N.J., 07670. Attention: Mark
Hyman.

Source: The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
Staff Photos by Al Paglione