School children raise fund for Obama in Peshawar, Pakistan

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School children raise fund for Obama in Peshawar, Pakistan

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uploaded by Khalid Khan Kheshgi

Khalid Kheshgi

PESHAWAR: A group of school children in Peshawar collected a meager amount of 261 US dollars for what they called Uncle Obama’s election campaign in the US presidential polls in a bid to help restore peace in their areas including Fata and Frontier province. Holding placards and charts written with slogans for peace and ‘no more war and bombings’, the school children, mostly between ten to thirteen years old, were denouncing increasing incidents of blowing of schools, bombing on residential areas and displacement of families in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the volatile Swat district of the Frontier province. "Uncle Obama we expect peace from you," reads one placard holding by a ten-year-old boy. Another chart, shown by an 11-year-old girl, states that "let us smile and play." They appealed to the Democrats' nominee for the US president Barak Obama to give them books and pens instead of bombs and missiles. After demonstrating their protest in front of Peshawar Press Club, the children, six of them boys and three girls, told journalists Wednesday that their small donation for Obama's election campaign was to show the world that the children of NWFP and the FATA were facing serious trouble because of the unrest here. "We have arranged this donation for the election campaign of Barak Obama to invite him to play his role in resolving the problem through peaceful means," said one of the boys holding a handwritten chart inscribed with "no violence." Accompanied by their parents and teachers the school kids said women and children were the ultimate sufferers in war and conflicts. "We can't keep ourselves aloof from these horrific developments and excessive use of force, extremism and terrorism." They said they did not know who was behind the violence and why. However, we were told that all the violence was because of the "flawed policies" of the United States. Therefore, they had decided to collect fund for Obama's election campaign to help give practical shape to his electioneering slogan of "change we need". “We hear Obama speaking in television debates and addressing public meetings and talking about a safe and prosperous future for the American children and people. "And this is what we desire for ourselves, our society and the human race at large," said one of the boys. "We want to attend schools without any fear of suicide blasts, bombings and heinous acts of violence and therefore, we collected the donation for Obama's election campaign to convey our message to him through media," he said. Speaking on the occasion, Aisha Ayaz, of the three girls, said they had collected the small amount out of their pocket and Eid money. "We earnestly hope that our voice and appeal for working together to build a safe world will reach Barak Obama, his party and the American people." We heard that America is a very powerful country of the world and its president enjoys immense powers to bring improvement to the world. “We have attached great expectations from Uncle Obama that his vision of ‘change’ will also benefit other societies of the world. The children said they were presenting the USD 261 to the US authorities in Pakistan for onward dispatch to Barak Obama on behalf of the children of Pakistan. Interestingly they did not mention the name of Mr McCain, Republic candidate for US president slot, either in their demands of peace and normalcy, which indicated that the children were believed Obama will sweep the upcoming presidential elections in the United States. ENDS