CHILDREN'S EXPRESS NEEDS YOUR HELP

6/6/01


Dear Friend,

Children's Express, an award-winning, nonprofit youth journalism program, needs your help to bring youth voices to adult media. For more than 25 years we've been empowering children all over the world through print, radio and video projects that rely on oral journalism to make the youth perspective a regular part of our national discussion. We are working on some great projects right now and we hope we can count on your support to continue our work into the next quarter century.

One of our main efforts has been to develop and market Children's Express' innovative radio pieces called "Fact/Voice" segments. These short broadcasts personalize statistics that pertain to young people. The New York bureau is creating the several pieces for pilot talk shows for XM Satellite Radio and Sesame Street. But these pieces - ranging from the stereotyping of children to homework woes to homeless youths - may never air if we can't count on people like you, people who respect and listen to the voices of youths, to support our work.

During the past 12 months, Children's Express New York has made a huge effort to listen to children in hard to reach areas. With a generous grant from the Japanese government Children's Express Worldwide was able to launch the Learn from Us program, a project that involves kids from all three North American bureaus plus ones from Tokyo. This summer, CE journalists will moderate a panel at educational hearings in Japan. In February, two CENY journalists joined a Unicef media tour of the reconstruction efforts in the Gujarat state of India, where a massive earthquake left more than 600,000 children homeless and destroyed half of Gujarat's 30,000 schools.

We've also done some remarkable stories at home. Kisha Kantasingh, 17, and Wade Spiner, 10, went to Staten Island to interview young amputees from Sierra Leone who were being fitted with donated prosthetics. "The article on Sierra Leone is incredible," wrote one adult reader. "I have been reading about Sierra Leone in other papers, but this time the impact on what is happening...caught my attention. Could it be because the article is written by a child?" Stories scheduled for June include the impact of plus-size junior models on young people, Ritalin testing on preschoolers and high school dropouts. We are also in the process of scheduling interviews with all of New York City's mayoral candidates.

Without your support these stories can't happen - and these young voices won't be heard. Please help us bring the youth perspective to the adult media.

Checks should be made out to Children's Express (NY Bureau) and sent to:
Children's Express (NY Bureau)
19 West 21st Street
Suite 1001
New York, New York, 10010.

Thank you,

Alexandra Berke, 16
Board of Directors

Katina Paron Director,
Children's Express New York