Building Bridges is a voluntary activity for students in Years 10–12, bringing students from Jewish, Muslim and Christian schools together. Over five evenings during the year, students are involved in a facilitated dialogue and other activities.
Year 11 student and 2018 participant, Guillaume Delvaen, reflected on his experience at a Senior School Assembly in May. Here is his presentation.
I would like everyone to take a moment and think about your friends. Think about how much fun you’ve had with them. Think about some of the friendships that slowly died away and the new ones that formed.
But how much do you actually know about these friends? Do you know what their favourite colour is, their favourite food; how about their religion, their perspective on life and their daily struggles? And of those friends, how many think differently to you, believe in a different God perhaps or even just challenge your thoughts?
Many of us here surround ourselves with like-minded people. You can relate to them, make jokes that they’ll understand and never have your opinion overly challenged. Yet it seems that whilst the world is becoming increasingly multicultural and accepting, people still tend to isolate themselves in restrictive groups when it comes to friendship.
Within the Building Bridges programme, I realised how restricted my friendships were, and how little I actually knew about my friends who were of a different religion. Some of these friends I had known for years, and still didn’t know much about them.
Yet, over five nights, I learnt about the struggles of young Muslims and how they feel victimised in their own country. I learnt about the devastating effect the holocaust still has over the Jewish community and how many Christian denominations relate to God in different ways.
This programme allowed me to make friends with people regardless of what school they attend, what ethnicity they are and what God they believe in. We disregarded our differences and formed friendships that I still have today.
The opportunity to take part in this event is truly unique, and I urge other students to allow themselves the opportunity to be part of something great. Friendship shouldn’t be restricted to similarities, rather be enhanced by differences.
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