Pencils for Palestine: Let Your Kids Join Letter Writing Campaign to Minister Joly Demanding a Ceasefire in Gaza

Written by Pencils for Peace

Published in News

Dear fellow Canadian Parents, Guardians and Teachers,

We hope this letter finds you well in these challenging times. We, as parents and caregivers, have a shared responsibility to create a better world for all children. With that in mind, we'd like to invite you to participate in a letter writing campaign titled “Pencils for Peace”. The purpose of this campaign is to call on our Canadian government to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, for the safety of all children. It will also be a learning opportunity for students to participate in advocacy and political decision making, to exercise their rights as citizens in our society.

As we are all aware, the situation in Gaza is dire. As of October 29th, 2023, more than 8000 individuals, including 3324 children have been murdered, which is more than 40% of those killed, as highlighted by Save The Children UK.

With regards to hostages, in Tel-Aviv, the families of hostages are demanding a ceasefire as their children and babies are amongst those impacted in Gaza. A United Human Rights Report released in July 2023, has noted that there are 160 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.

The main objective of this campaign is to get kids and youth involved in sending heartfelt letters to our politicians, advocating for a ceasefire. These letters will be accompanied by children's illustrations, their first names and ages (if they wish), and a short, sincere message to collectively urge our government to take immediate action for a ceasefire, and end the deliberate killing of children.

Below are the steps to get involved:

Participate: Encourage your children to create their own drawings and write their messages, expressing their genuine concern for the children in Israel and Gaza. You can help guide them, but let their compassion shine through. Ensure they include a heartfelt message for peace. If they wish to do so, they can include their name and age, but this is necessary.

Mail Your Letters: Send the letters to our designated mailing address below.

MAILING ADDRESS

Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada, Mélanie Joly, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6

It’s free - No postage required!

Spread the word: Upload to your social media pages and use the hashtag #pencilsforpeace so we can amplify it throughout social media.We encourage you to share this initiative with other parents, friends, and family members, so that as a collective, we can send as many letters as possible.

Kindly aim to complete the activity, including mailing out of letters by Monday November 6th, 2023. The short timeline is to encourage immediate action both by us, and put continued pressure on our governments to demand a ceasefire.

Please Note: If this campaign, #PencilsforPeace, garners media attention, content uploaded on social media will be accessed by media outlets. As such, we advise only uploading images of the letters your students are sharing, on your social media pages. We will do our part, if contacted by media, to ensure schools and students are not named publicly in any media coverage.