Young people can build a bridge of peace and tolerance. This is the intention behind the project “Students build bridges” which is being organized by the Peter Maffay Foundation in co-operation with the Ministry for Generations, Family, Women and Integration of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Peres Center for Peace, the Pestalozzi school as well as the city of Bochum. The first students’ exchange took place in November 2008 with 18 young people aged 15 – 17. For one week, they travelled to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, partly accompanied by Peter Maffay and Minister Armin Laschet, and met students from Israel and Palestine. In late April / early May 2009, the students from Israel and the Palestinian territories came to visit their new friends in Bochum and travelled to Berlin and Tutzing together with them. In Berlin, they met the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Köhler. At the Tutzing Red Rooster studios, they recorded the song “We Care”, which they had written and composed together with Peter Maffay and Peter Keller.

The project’s goal is to promote the dialogue of cultures and religions and to turn young people into ambassadors of peace. This may sound a little elevated at first. However, the project’s patron, Shimon Peres (Peace Nobel Prize laureate and President of Israel) describes it with less pathos in his own words: “Peace is nothing you just have, peace is something you create. Today, they are still students, tomorrow they are the leading personalities of their country. Each student is an ambassador who takes the experiences they have made with another student from a different culture into their family, to their friends and acquaintances. I am deeply convinced that young people can become bridge-builders of peace and of a better tomorrow.”

For further information see: www.schueler-bauen-bruecken.de

Diashow