SIB K-8 is participating in a popular cultural education program tied to New York Times bestseller, Three Cups of Tea.
The students at Sunny Isles Beach K-8 have joined hands with tens of thousands of other school children around the world who share the vision and dedication to empower communities through education in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sunny Isles Beach K-8 students have embarked on a Pennies for Peace campaign to broaden their cultural horizons and become members of a global family dedicated to peace.
How can a penny bring peace? It doesn’t buy much in Sunny Isles Beach. But in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it can buy a pencil, start an education, and transform a life. In a region where terrorist organizations recruit uneducated, illiterate children, that pencil can empower a child to read, write, and learn. The Pennies for Peace program goal is to encourage children, who are ultimately our future leaders, to learn the value of philanthropy by collecting pennies for global peace.
Sunny Isles Beach K-8 students have had an opportunity to study the cultures of Afghanistan and Pakistan, learn to work and share together in their Pennies for Peace campaign, and come to understand their own capacity as philanthropists – one penny at a time.
After reading Three Cups of Tea, students from Mrs. Disla’s 4th grade class presented the campaign in every classroom. Each class was given a jar to collect pennies for the campaign. At the end of each week the pennies are delivered to Mrs. Disla’s class, and students count and roll them up, in order to take them to the bank.
The pennies that Sunny Isles Beach K-8 students collect can add up to make a real difference.
1 penny = a pencil
2-3 pennies = an eraser
15 pennies = one notebook
$20 = one child’s school supplies for one year
$50 = one treadle sewing machine and supplies
$100 = maternal healthcare supplies for one year
$300 = one advanced student’s annual scholarship
$600 = one teacher’s annual salary
$5,000 = support for existing school for one year
$50,000 = one school building and support for up to five years
Children in over 400 mountain villages in remote northern Pakistan and Afghanistan are on the waiting list, hoping to learn in a new school. Sunny Isles Beach K-8 students hope to help build a bridge of peace, one penny at a time, offering alternatives to the cycle of terrorism and war.
ABOUT PENNIES FOR PEACE
The Pennies for Peace campaign is a program of Central Asia Institute (CAI), founded by Greg Mortenson, author of the #1 New York Times best seller, Three Cups of Tea. CAI is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia.
