Generation Global

 

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is an interfaith charitable foundation established in May 2008 by former British Prime Minister. The Face to Faith project is a program for school children which allows, via video conferencing, international interaction where cross faith discussions take place. The proclaimed aim is to break down religious and cultural differences and thereby reduce conflict.

Our school was selected amongst the 5 winners at international level for a movie created by our students titled - ‘Our Peace Pledge’ as a part of Peace Day celebrations 2016. The competition was organized by Generation Global and Cooperation Ireland. The five best entries were shown at an event in September, which was covered by the media and live-streamed internationally.

Khushboo Gulzar and Kavita Manyal were shortlisted at the international level blog writing competition during Peace Day Celebrations 2015.

The school received the ‘Outstanding Award’ from this foundation in recognition of its achievements in the Face to Faith Program. Certificates were awarded to the school team lead by principal Mrs. Adarsh Kohli and the three teachers associated with the project - Ms. Shalini Arora, Ms. Vandana Bansal and Ms. Shailja Malhotra.

Our school received the outstanding award certificate second time for the Face to Faith global school dialogue programme in the year 2015. The school received congratulatory letter stating that our’s is the only school in the world to date that has sustained such an exceptional level of engagement with the programme that we have been able to successfully apply for a renewal of this status and achieve it successfully. The success of the Face to Faith programme depends entirely upon the exceptional work that is done in classrooms by teachers who are committed to ensuring the broadest possible development of the young people in their charge. We would like to thank Principal Ms. Reena Rajpal as under her able guidance we were able to achieve this feat of success.

The school aims at the holistic development of its students, and through Face to Faith it has found yet another way of providing its students with the right exposure at international level on sensitive issues such as inter faith harmony, gender discrimination, human trafficking, medical ethics, human rights and women’s rights.

DLDAV Model School, Shalimar Bagh partnered with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in September, 2011. The idea of building a generation which has respect for all religions and treats humans as equal was over powering and thus began the journey of spreading this message. Students from Classes IX-XII actively participate in various Face to Faith activities like video conferences, blogs, chats and other social work like celebrating Peace Day, Face to Faith Day etc. Students have shown keen interest in participating and creating various materials for the F2F projects.

A few to mention are the posters created for celebrating Peace Day on the theme Inter-faith harmony, head gears, sashes, slogans, Book marks, Pin Wheels and poems on the same theme. These were then displayed by the members around the school campus for others to get the message. Members have also taken initiative in planning events like Peace Tree and Peace Bell for parents, students and teachers to put up their messages. Signature campaign, Peace walk, human chain, special assemblies, Peace Conferences etc. are some other events organised under the programme. Students dressed as world peace leaders such as Mother Teresa, Dalai Lama etc addressed special assembly during Peace Day celebrations, in which ballet performance was also given.

The most significant proof of the impact this program had on the students is the fact that two of our students have won individual awards at international level.

Palak Handa, whose view on the similarity between Kashmir issue in India and Ireland issue got her acclaim in the ‘Coexistence at Ballycastle’ event organized by Face to Faith.

Aditi Muradia, who won the international Blog competition for her story on “Friend from a different faith”, which also got published in ‘The Huffington Post’.

Students efforts in celebrating Face to Faith day were also appreciated by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, when our school was selected to be amongst the best 15 on a national level.

The school has experienced a radical change in the mindsets of its students who are members of the foundation.

The FTF members have attended the following video conferences which has helped in the broadening of their mental horizons and provided them with an opportunity to interact with their peers across world. Their views and opinions have been appreciated by the facilitators and guests during the interactions.

1. UN Human Rights Day : Lewis and Clark High School, DAV Centenary Public School, Narela, Diponegoro 1 Sr. High School, Jakarta
2. Environment Module : Islam Al Azhar, The Gurukul
3. UN Peace Day : SMP Islam Al-Azhar 9, Our Own English High School, Dubai
4. UN Women’s Day : Gov’t Girls Pilot High School Hyderabad, Mercedes College, Star of the Sea
5. UN Malaria Day : Islamic Educational College, The City’s School Bhit Shah, Zilla Parishad High School
6. UN Human Trafficking Day : Cambridge High School, Our Own High School, Bal Bharati Pitampura
7. Medical Ethics : Chettinad Vidyalaya, The Guru kul