Thank You SID!

Dear SID Members,

On behalf of PeacePlayers International – Middle East (PPI-ME), I would like to thank you and all members of the Brigham Young University – Hawaii Students for International Development (SID) Club for your fundraising efforts and generous donation of $1,000 to the PPI-ME program.

Your contribution helped enable PPI-ME to organize and host our 2009 Annual Spring Tournament, the capstone event of the programming season. This year’s tournament, held at an outdoor sports facility in Tel Aviv, brought together over 200 Arab and Jewish children from across Israel for a day of basketball, team building exercises and fun games. The SID Club donation was instrumental in funding tournament stations such as tug of war, puzzle building, water balloons and trampoline, all “off the court” teamwork activities that allowed the youth to have fun and get better acquainted with one another.

The Annual Spring Tournament is an important part of the programming year, as the positive experience it provides helps further the PPI-ME mission of uniting youth from different backgrounds. All children participate in the day’s activities as part of an integrated team made up of PeacePlayers from a wide range of communities, creating a unique atmosphere of basketball and coexistence. When asked about her experience at the 2009 Spring Tournament, Nastiya, a PeacePlayer from the Jewish community of Bet Shemesh, replied that:

"We played with girls from other teams and made new friends. I really like Siwi and Miriam from Beit Safafa. I learned I'm supposed to play under the basket, too, from Coach Samer. The best part was the basketball and I learned to see the other side of the girls, they are really nice, and not just listen to what people in my community say about Arab people. People are not like everyone says they are."

On behalf of all the children who participated in the 2009 Spring Tournament, PeacePlayers International - Middle East would like to thank you for your generous gift. Your contribution to our program has made an impact and helped us to continue working to bridge divides.

Sincerely,

PeacePlayers International - Middle East

Testimonial

I love SID! I am so happy to see this club continued! SID is the club that allows our passion and vision to come together and initiate action to “make the changes we want to see in the world!” (Gandhi) We have endured many challenges, especially with the school policy, but all these experiences helped us to grow, be united, and see positive changes at BYU-Hawaii. Each member of SID is a President. This is one of the important concepts of SID. It has a lot of potential to grow, become more organized, and improve. Please help each other and suggest any cool idea you may have. I hope that you all will keep rocking (more!) and that we can keep in touch.

With much aloha, Saeko Yamashtia

Welcome to SID

Welcome to Students for International Development! Here you can find the past and latest events of SID BYU-Hawaii's efforts to better the lives of those around us.

SID, a club at BYU-Hawaii, welcomes all students to join our forces in making the world a better place by helping countries in need through fundraising money to donate to various Non-Government Organizations around the world. Through participating in events such as Food Fest and World Fest, our goal is to help others to help themselves. This will provide people with the skills and abilities necessary to maintain a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

Feel free to peruse our blog, view our Facebook SID BYU-Hawaii group page, and join in our meetings on Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m. Please contact Victoria at victoriamansfield@msn.com for more information.

As intercultural students from all over the world, it is possible to make a difference; it is possible to reach out to those around us and change their lives in a positive way. We strive for world peace. Please, join us!