TEHRAN – Elizabeth Shepherd, the director of Children’s Film Festival Seattle in the United States of America, has congratulated the National Children’s Week in Iran.

The Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA, also known as Kanoon) and several other Iranian children’s cultural centers celebrate the week every year in October. This year’s festival is being organized from October 8 to 14. 

In a message sent to the Kanoon, Shepherd said, “I am in Seattle right now, wishing everyone a beautiful festival and I want to send my deepest congratulations to the film department of Kanoon.

“I want to say hello to all the children who are there today. I hope the films you see bring you so much happiness and so many beautiful colors of life.

“I’ve had a supreme pleasure for many years of working with the film department of Kanoon… And I know the works that have been created in Iran are so beautiful.”

Shepherd also expressed her thanks to the institute for sending films to the Seattle festival so many times and said, “You have brightened so many children’s lives here with so many beautiful films from Iran.

“I send you my warmest greetings and wish you the most beautiful festival in the world,” she stated.

In a symbolic act, the Kanoon has also published a letter from Iranian children to their peers in the world to celebrate the National Children’s Week.

“We, the Iranian children, say hello to all children from all over the world,” the letter says. 

“We are the ones who are the sweetness of life as grownups say; the ones who wish that we always would be happy and that nothing would blemish our dreams. However, our world gets blemished when grownups do not pay attention to us. Then, our smiles get tarnished. 

“We all love and we don’t want any fighting or war among people and countries in the world. We love ‘Peace.’ We love kindness and happiness. We love giving and receiving gifts. We love smiling at each other. We love peace and friendship. We want all to look alike with smiling faces. 

“Why must we be sacrificed because grownups are at war? We detest words like anger, enmity, crying, war and fighting. We even do not even want to write these words in our notebooks. Whenever we see hungry kids in the world, we hate eating our food. We want all kids to be happy all over the world. We want them to have clothes, food and enjoy themselves. We want all children go to school and have an education. We want grownups to listen to our words.

“We are willing to have grownups draw paintings with the theme of reconciliation and friendship. We are kids and we would like to tell grownups if you want us to believe that you love us, be kind and on good terms with each other. If you love us, throw away all your guns and listen to us.

“We really want the world to be a place where we can sing happily. We don’t want grownups to do things that bring tears to our eyes and break our hearts. Grownups must keep in mind that if they are going to build a happy world for kids, they must be kind to each other, like us. 

“We love those who love kids and spend time with them. We pray for all grownups to have the Kind God as their friend so that they would help us, with hope for happy days of our lives and a happy childhood.”

Photo: Children’s Film Festival Seattle director Elizabeth Shepherd in an undated photo.

MMS/YAW