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I didn't know that letter would be the last. I clicked the "send" button and waited for months, to no avail: She didn't write back. I never got to meet her, but she changed my life.

When I was 12 years old, I communicated with an Israeli girl through an international pen pal organization. When she didn't reply to me for over a month, I wondered why.

I researched "Israel" on the internet and then learned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I could only imagine what happened to my pen pal.

Even though I could never help her specifically, I knew from that moment forward that I wanted to help children like her - children caught in this conflict that consumes their daily lives.

I began my search for an organization that offered support to both Israeli and Palestinian children - not just one side or the other. To my dismay, every organization I found only helped one side and often taught hatred of the other.

It took a year of research, but I finally found the perfect organization to support: the Hand in Hand schools, a system of four schools located throughout Israel where Palestinian and Israeli children learn together, in the same classroom. They learn each other's languages, customs and religions.

For five years, I have been raising money and awareness for these schools by selling homemade crafts at local craft fairs. I have recently started speaking at local churches and, this coming year, I am preparing to speak at local schools.

I recently spoke at a workshop at an Interfaith Alliance of New York State conference. I also have written a blog [entry] for a "Waging Peace: Women Against the War" blog about the schools and my involvement with them.

I will never know what happened to my pen pal, and she will never know how much she has changed my life. Even though that may have been the last letter ever sent between us, that ending opened the door to an unexpected new beginning.

(This is one the the winners of The Evangelist's annual teen essay contest. In light of the U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and efforts to spur peace in the Middle East, we invited young Catholics to write about their personal experiences as peacemakers.)

(11/11/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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