If we could find a Danish school who was interested to go through this experiment with us, we would ask them for the list of names of one class, about 20 students, ages 10-12, then include next to each name whether this is a boy or a girl. Once this list is received in Cairo, we will make a random distribution of names among our students, and then send back to the Danish school the list of pairs of names: each of their students will have a name from ours in front of his/her name. Now students on both sides would know which “Secret Friend” they have on the other side waiting to write to them and get their friendly letter and small gift in return.

The trick is that this should be a class project, not just a personal pen-pals program. So teachers on both sides will have to communicate too in order to help each other introduce a foreign culture to their class. Zero-net would also communicate with both sides constantly to facilitate the cooperation and help with creative ideas.

The following stage is for kids on both sides to write -during the school day- short simple letters in English to their “secret friend” in the other country to introduce themselves and their culture. Teachers could give a simple briefing before they start and guide them as they work if needed. They also take pictures as they work. At the end of one week each teacher collects the letters from her class and packages them in preparation for sending them to the other country.

Zero-net had to find a way to exchange the letters and gifts by hand in a gift box; a Treasure Box.

Once the Treasure Box arrives in each school, we can take pictures of the kids opening their mail and post them on our website so more people could be exposed to the idea. Everyone thought it’s a great project and they were excited to start working… but things aren’t always as simple as they seem…

It took us several weeks to find a school in Copenhagen. We wrote to several whose addresses were given to us by friends, some never got back to us, and others said they will think and get back to us, and it seems they’re still thinking :)

Then one magic day towards the end of March 2006, we got an email from Trekronergade Freinetskole they were excited about the idea and ready to start immediately. Well, so were we!

Their 5th grade class had 9 boys and 9 girls, and since parents on both sides preferred that boys talk to boys and girls to girls, we had to match the exact number and genders of the class.

A community of Secret Friends was magically forming across borders. There was much excitement among the Zero-net team as we briefed the kids, supervised their progress, chose with them the gifts, and added some gifts of our own to the Treasure Box to be sent to Denmark, check out the details on the Talk2Me page.

While we were working, some sad events happened in Dahab on the Egyptian shores: there were terrorist explosions and many people died. It was amazing for everyone involved that the Danish kids asked their teacher to send us a mail enquiring about our kids and making sure everyone is ok… she wrote:

“My students and I were very concerned hearing of the terror bombs in Dahab recently - although the children haven’t had any contact with your students yet, they felt that their personal friends in Egypt were in danger: What was going to happen next, did it take place near you etc. Such a tiny contact - a name, a first letter - and all of a sudden… personal relations are made!”

The letters were ready on both sides after Easter vacation, so we had a problem: no one was traveling soon between the two countries; the first date we got was one month later! This would risk losing momentum and getting too close to the end of the school year in both countries. This seemed like a new mission impossible for the Zero-net team :) eventually a solution was found, the Egyptian Treasure Box was on its way, and a couple of days later, finding a friend on her way back from Denmark, we connected her with the school, they sent her the package over a long weekend… she got it only a few minutes before catching her plane! *phew* … DONE! :)

Zero-net’s work has just started: picking up the Danish gift box, photographing the contents for the website, delivering it to the schools, and photographing the kids as they opened their gifts, then supervising them as they wrote and delivered their responses.

Back to Top