05/21/2018
A message from AFICE President, Kevin Ring:
The AFICE community of students, host families, community representatives, national staff, and international partners offer their deepest condolences to the family of Sabika Sheikh and all who were affected by the shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, last Friday. While Sabika was not specifically an AFICE student, she was an exchange student. Part of the international community. When I heard on the news that an exchange student was one of the students who had been murdered, my first thought was to her parents, so far away. Tears came to my eyes in deep sympathy.
Cultural exchange is specifically aimed at bringing people together, building bridges of understanding, and creating new friendships. Clearly, we have more work to do--from the smallest family-level, throughout communities, and onto the nationwide stage--to create more empathy, more understanding, and to find a way to combat the sickness of violence that is plaguing us.
Here's a good starting point: Let us not act from a place of fear. Let us not look for the differences that divide us. Let us instead find the things that we share, our common ground. Let us act from a place of nurturing and love.
I will leave you with this: Go and hug your family, your friends. Tell them you love them. Be kind to each other. Love more, hate less, repeat.
Peace,
Kevin Ring
