Dear Life-Linkers!
It has been a while since you have heard from us. Therefore, with this letter, I wish to bring you up to date.
Challenging and promising times
Currently, we are living in challenging but also promising times. Examples of the challenges are the climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, (nuclear) arms proliferation, corruption and wealth disparities, the destructive exploitation of land and oceans, human rights abuses, fake news and hate speech. Examples of the promises are the many initiatives by especially young people, all over the world, to rapidly expand renewable energy sources, while decarbonizing the economy; to create a culture of peace - not war; to protect, restore and regenerate nature, land and the oceans; to support health workers; to welcome refugees; to fight injustice; to be active citizens, locally and globally; to choose sustainable lifestyles.
The challenges and promises remind us of why the Life-Link Friendship Schools association was established in the first place. The first article of its statutes states: “The Life-Link Friendship-Schools Association was founded to encourage and support children and young people's education in issues that primarily concern constructive cooperation with a focus on a sustainable, humanistic lifestyle and to promote education in subjects that can contribute to peaceful development in the world.”
I strongly believe that all those participating in Life-Link can make a real contribution to convert the challenges into ever expanding promises. We in Life-Link have exciting times ahead of us.
Students from the Rabbani Education Complex, Iran, showing the Word Peace Flame.
Activities
I am happy to report that Life-Link is doing very well. Even during the ongoing pandemic, we organised several activities. COVID-19, unfortunately, prevented us from organizing the annual in-person conference. But, fortunately, the shift to using digital means of communication allowed for a much greater number of participating schools! These events took place during the spring and autumn of 2021. For June 2022, a new a digital conference is being planned. The invitation will be issued in March.
Life-Link Newsletter
Frequent interaction and communication between Life-Link’s members – teachers and students alike – is essential for a successful Life-Link actions and activities. We are, therefore, proud to announce that Life-Link will be shortly issuing a quarterly newsletter featuring the latest action reports, messages from the Board and articles by friends of Life-Link from all over the world!
To receive the newsletter, visit Life-Link’s website (https://lifelinkschools.org/), scroll down to the bottom of the first page and fill in the form under the heading “Subscribe to our newsletter”.
We ask all teachers to sign up. We also ask them kindly to encourage their students to do the same. All new mail addresses will be added to our database. Thus, you and your students will always receive all new Life-Link information.
Life-Link Facebook group
We also would like to urge you and your students join to our new Facebook group, where you can talk to your Life-Link friends and comment on action reports. To join, you can either click the following link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/492373028901079/ or search for “Life-Link Friendship Schools”. Please encourage your students to join the group as well!
Looking forward to seeing you later in June!
With Care,
Lars Johnson, Chairman