Vivien Feyer and Jeffrey Ritterman are a Richmond, California couple. She is a psychologist and educator; he is a doctor practicing in the local community. In 2005, the couple traveled to the Iraqi border, accompanying a delegation of US military families whose loved ones had been killed in Iraq*. They brought humanitarian aid, and listened to the tragic stories of Iraqi families, physicians and human rights workers. They witnessed the people of both countries coming together in their profound grief, with a shared commitment to creating a peaceful future.

The couple brought the stories they heard back to the United States – and continue to share what they have learned of the human consequences of war.

In 2006, Vivien and Jeffrey traveled with a citizen diplomacy delegation to Iran*. They met with Iranian doctors, women's organizations, community groups and Muslim clerics, and with many women, men and children in the parks and on the streets. They took several thousand photographs, with the hope of giving people in the United States a clearer glimpse of the human side of Iran.

In Tehran, the couple visited the Society for Chemical Weapons Victims Support. There they met with survivors of chemical weapons attacks and heard their stories. They saw image after image of mutilated bodies – of men, women and children with devastating injuries Among these photographs, they happened upon the drawings of children - children who know the direct consequences of war, and children who dream of a peaceful future.

We can speak to you of what cluster bombs do to human flesh. We can show you images of children’s burned corpses. But what we wish for you to see, now, are the faces and the artwork of living children. Perhaps they can communicate to you a sense of their own world, their own experience, and their own hopes.

Perhaps, together, we might have the power to make their dreams come true.

* Both the Families for Peace Delegation to the Iraqi border in 2005 and the citizen diplomacy trip to Iran in 2006 were organized by Global Exchange (link here), a San Francisco based Human Rights Organization.