New Delhi: Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla is endorsing a friendship initiative, between school students of India and Pakistan, aimed at bridging the gap across borders.
“You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your neighbours so please go ahead and make friends with your neighbours,” the actress said at the launch of the third round of the ‘Exchange for Change’ programme here on Wednesday.
The programme, first began in 2010 in collaboration with city-based NGO Routes2Roots and Pakistan non-profit Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP).
In phase one of the 16-month programme, ten schools in Delhi, Karachi, Lahore and Mumbai took art and around 2,400 students exchanged letters, postcards, collages and oral histories. During the second phase the number of students went up to 3,500.
“Forgive, Forget and move on. Children have made a little beginning with this and I really wish the more students join in and make this program a great progress,” said the actress.
The launch was attended by diplomats like Pakistan High Commissioner to Delhi, Salman Bashir, Union Minister Kapil Sibal and principals and children from the participating schools as well as those children who were part of the EFC in earlier years.
“I believe it is the third launch and one of the largest students ex-change program in the world. The element of trust which existed when we lived together is absent and of course it is an accident of history and part of colonial strategy to divide and rule,” said Kapil Sibal.
For the third round of the program, 5,000 students from 25 schools from Delhi, Mumbai, Dehradun, Lahore, Karachi Rawalpindi and Islamabad are set to participate. (PTI)
