Nearly 1,000 doves broke through the smog hanging over Cairo on Wednesday to welcome 61 teenagers from 25 countries beginning a tour through Egypt designed to teach them peacemaking skills.The "peace camp" tour coincides by chance with Egypt's efforts this week to revive the Middle East peace process by meeting with Palestinian factions and the Israeli foreign minister.
The doves were released over the Egyptian Museum.
"This is not only the mother country (of civilization), so to speak, but the mother country of peace," said Mary Eisenhower, granddaughter of former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower and organizer of the camp.
The 10-day tour of Egypt blends 20 hours of hands-on conflict resolution sessions with sightseeing throughout the country, spokeswoman Manal Saad said.
Teenagers aged 14 to 18 from many countries including the United States, Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Israel, as well as Vietnam, Russia, Uzbekistan, Bahrain and Portugal competed at home to participate in the camp.
The students will plant trees, meet with Egyptian students at the Mubarak Public Library and talk to the US ambassador to Egypt, David Welch, as part of their training.
They will also ride camels, snorkel in the Red Sea and cruise up the Nile between Luxor and Aswan.
Eisenhower said she hopes the attention the camp attracts will remind the world of the need for peace, adding, "I hope the kids will take home the message and spread it as well."
As chair of People to People, a Missouri-based organization which her grandfather founded in 1956, Eisenhower said the camp idea resulted from a Women's International Peace Movement she attended in Egypt in September 2002.
Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak is scheduled to address the peace camp group at a dinner next Tuesday night.
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