Rashid Peters

My name is Rashid Peters. My hero is Bill Belsey, a Canadian teacher in Alberta, Canada. Bill Belsey has been my hero because of all the years Bill Belsey has been a catalyst to my development up to this while. In all the years of my exposure to the Internet, I got in contact with Bill Belsey. As a project leader in Canada, a leader of the www.bullying.org project, he introduced me to exploits on the Internet.

He also played roles in the Child Soldiers Project in which I contributed a lot about music, my effect in this war, and the effects on all our friends in this decade-long war in my country. Through the Internet, I was also able to work along line in the year 2001 to meet face-to-face and shake hands with this, my hero, Bill Belsey, in Cape Town, South Africa, where I was invited to represent the youths of iEARN Sierra Leone in iEARNS's 5th Youth Summit and Seventh Teacher's Conference.

From left to right: Andrew Greene, Jane Peters, Rashid, Wilred Mohamed Kuteh, Wilkingson Raises, Alimamy Bangura, Francis Decker and Memunatu Barrie.

And my exploits in this conference were not only important, but also served as a springboard to other youths of my country and many other things. At my meeting with Bill Belsey in the conference I had the representation with him and my national coordinator, Andrew Benson Greene, Jr. about the issues or the problems facing child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Now Bill Belsey did not only meet with me and shake hands in Cape Town, South Africa, but he showed me how to search about child soldiers, issues and things related to the Internet.

And since that time, I've seen a very wide scale improvement in my life about ICTs. Even as I left Cape Town, South Africa, and ran back to Freetown, Sierra Leone, our collaboration still continues.

Rashid Peters with his hero, Bill Belsey, and Andrew Greene at the iEARN Conference in Cape Town, South Africa (Courtesy of www.childsoldiers.org)

In direct connection with my talks with Bill Belsey, it has also led to something which we won ahead, which is the Childnet Award. The Childnet Award is an award that is organized in London relative to the use of ICT's and above all they have contributed a lot and because of the participation of Bill Belsey, I did my best that we won the Childnet Award.

Not forgetting another person who has been very important, very highlighting and very strong in the educational background to the Internet is Spero of Athens, Greece, a leader of Junior Journal: Junior Summit of Boston. When I saw him I saw a great improvement and of course I cried and other things.

But I talked and shook hands through the Internet and now I can write for an international audience or even speak anywhere in pushing peace against anti-drug abuse and many other things that are developments to the world. Thank you.