With September 21 being designated as the International Day of Peace, the young people from Selkirk are also working on several peace-themed events for next month, including a ceilidh and a band night.

Below follows Leigh's article on the conference.

"ON July 21 five young people from Rowland's – Selkirk Dry Bar – went to Merchiston School in Edinburgh to visit a group of young Palestinian and Israeli people to talk about peace.

We spoke to the young people with the aid of translators, who had to change every question into English, Arabic and Hebrew.

It was a chance to compare our lives, our education and our interests.

It was interesting to hear how the young people don't have pets, as they struggle to look after themselves and don't have the money to take care of animals. Some of the young people we spoke to live in safer areas where they are protected, but this means that they have curfews and can't mix with people outside these areas.

We wanted to meet these young people as we are really interested in the 'Peace One Day' project.

We are hoping to hold some events around September 21 to highlight that this is World Peace Day.

Listening to these young people made me realise that I am really lucky to live somewhere safe. That I don't have to worry about bombings, shootings and constantly feeling frightened.

We were told that when the groups first met it was pretty scary as they didn't know what to expect, and what side people would be on. Through time they have become friends.

We were also made aware that the young people who were enjoying the freedom of being in Edinburgh, getting to go shopping and doing what they wanted, would find it really hard to go home and back to a very different and restricted life.

I felt that we take stuff for granted living here and having all the things we have.

We asked them if they felt that the rest of the world was supportive towards this situation and they replied that they felt that we cared. There is so much television coverage on the news about the Middle East and the bombings and the fighting that I don't really pay much attention to it, and now it seems more real and it's happening to the people I spoke to. I think I'll start paying more attention to what we are being told about what's happening.

We tried to find out what the term 'peace' means to different people, and what it means to me."

Leigh Oliver, 16

Check out video about Peace Day at www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FmEIP46B-E