Life-Link Friendship Schools

Life-Link Friendship-Schools is an independent Non-governmental Organisation which aims to promote contact and co-operation between young people around the world and their schools. The programme is developed to engage students worldwide in enacting peace at and around their schools. It works through active participation in shared projects, vital for our time (e.g. Environment, Human Rights, Conflict Resolution and Constructive Collaboration).
Life-Link projects centre around three main areas of attention: Care for Myself - Care for Others - Care for Nature. Realisation in these three interdependent areas will lead to stronger community feeling and enhance peace. Currently, Life-Link is a well recognized non-governmental organisation with international contacts in more than 90 countries and almost 800 schools are committed in enacting peace through Life-Link.
History
The Life-Link Friendship Schools Programme was founded by the late Dr. Hans Levander. His idea of peace education was founded in 1987 and has by now reached schools and students in countries all over the world. Central to Life-Link is Hans Levander’s philosophy of ‘the three C’s’: Care for Myself, Care for Others and Care for Nature. The legacy of Hans Levander lives on within the Life-Link programme.
Organisation
Life-Link is organised on Two Levels:
# Committees or Clubs in schools with youth-teachers-parents-resource persons.
# International office and board in the Uppsala-Sigtuna region, Sweden.
Target Group
Life-Link intends to reach lower and upper secondary school students between the age of 12 to -19 years old., They are encouraged to take initiative and can work in co-operation with teachers and preferably also with parents. Besides, students can involve the surrounding community to increase the amount of people they reach and to widen the spatial effect of their action. On long term this could lead to a change in mindset of the whole community.
Peace and Care Actions
The peace actions/projects can be chosen from a list of 48 actions within the themes of Care for Myself, Care for Others and Care for Nature.
Perform one peace action or even combine several actions together, as provided in the Life-Link manual. The actions should take place at and around the participant's school or within the nearby community, and can be initiated by a class or a team composed at school. Each performed peace action should be reported to Life-Link on a short Report Form online, by mail or E-mail. By sending the first Action Report, a school will be accepted and automatically listed as a partner. The Life-Link programme needs no application form or entrance fee. You can Just join!.
Regional and International Collaboration and Networking
When a school and its performed action(s) are listed on http://lifelinkschools.org/, one can study if other schools in the world have performed similar peace actions. Just make a search on the website's Latest Actions.
A class, team or school might be interested to contact other schools performing similar actions and to exchange protocols and experiences. Participants are allowed to take such contacts directly via the provided information on Latest Actions. Additionally Life-Link organises a yearly conference where each member is invited to participate. During the conference every school gets the chance to talk about their performed actions. In this way other schools can learn from their experience and original ideas on a specific action.
Life-Link stresses the importance that the first approach with another school discusses a temporarly partner-schools collaboration. It is essential that both schools can benefit from the partnership. In this sense one can communicate about areas of interest and problems on which the school have to deal with according to Care for Myself, Care for Others and Care for Nature. The partner school can provide their view, because maybe they already had the same issue. If the partner is facing similar problems, then this can provide a basis to work together on a specific action. In modern times it is simple to keep in close contact even when distance makes it more difficult. Share ideas and pictures around the chosen activity via E-mail or organise a skype meeting to get in contact face to face.
Prolonged collaboration and projects can be the result, from the first contacts. Individual pen pal contacts can grow out from early Partner-Schools collaboration, and continue after that the Partner-Schools programme is finalised. Your school might also benefit from networking with a few or even several other schools around a topic of interest.
Who Benefits from the Life-Link Programme, and How
Youth
* More Self-esteem, more concern about My lifestyle, and more Hope for the Future
* Learning through practical projects and problem-solving
* Language and Communication training
* Collaboration and Project Management skills
* Behaviour in the direction of Care and Share
Teachers - Educators
* Global Classroom and Global Education
* Pedagogics for teaching-learning through problem solving
* Theory into Practice
* Conflict resolution and Mediation skills
* Interaction with community experts
Schools
* International curriculum
* Quality - Attractive reputation
* Peaceful behaviour between students and teachers and among students themselves
* Higher status in society
Communities
* Favourable interaction: School-Parents-Community
* Campaigns: Clean Up, Water, Tree planting, Anti Drugs etc.
* Non-violence behaviour
* Caring and Sharing society
States and Countries
* Building confidence across borders
* Dialogue Among Civilisations
* Building Common Security
* From Culture of War to Culture of Peace
The Earth
* Reverence for Life and Biology on Earth
* Biological security
* Behaviour in Favour of Sustainable Development
* Care for common watersheds and biotopes etc.
Membership
* Engage in Campaign "Youth Caring and Sharing Peace Actions 2000+"
* A minimum of one Peace Action reported to Life-Link
* Students/pupils aged 12-19
* A non-compulsory annual fee of minimum US$10 (1999)
* A Life-Link committee, class or club at the school which is endorsed by the school authority
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