It has been a couple of weeks since I returned back from my visit to the UK and I’ve often thought back about the people that I met, both for the first time, and old friends I saw again in Wales and London.
There was tiny me trying to find my way on the tubes, trains and busses in the huge London. That was great fun and I won’t tell you how many times I got lost!
When I arrived at Heathrow on my birthday everything was covered in snow. I had a feeling then that this would be the best ever trip that I made to the UK, and I was right.
The first week I stayed with David and Donna Griffiths and spent the week at Cowbridge Comprehensive School talking to over 1,000 children about the Path Out of Poverty (POP) programme and thanking them in person for their support to our work. I also taught them how to sing and do the actions of our favourite song at POP which is called “Making Melodies.” Nathan Hopkins, one of the teachers who came to Goedgedacht farm on the last trip in 2009, made a lovely DVD about their South African experience and very thoughtfully waited for my arrival before showing it to the rest of the school. This DVD is on sale now, which is one more way in which Cowbridge is raising money for POP. I was very touched when the teachers and support staff introduced me very proudly to the children as “Ingrid from our charity in Africa.” It made me feel like a friend of the school. Here are some pictures of my week in Cowbridge Comprehensive School:
The second week I stayed with Pete and Denise Cavalli who have been friends of POP for more than 6 years. During my stay, I managed to visit Bishop Gore School in Swansea where Ruth Williams is a teacher and an amazing supporter of POP. She has been wanting to bring children from her school over to Goedgedacht farm in South Africa for many years now, and finally got her wish this year! Her school will be visiting us this summer and we are so excited. I had a lovely day at Bishop Gore introducing the POP programme to over 700 school children and teaching them “Making Melodies”. We also learned a song named “I like the flowers” which I cannot get out of my head now! Here are some pictures to tell you more about my visit to Bishop Gore:
I managed to make my way to Oxfordshire and met with Sylvia Ashley. She is a wonderful supporter of POP and a truly amazing woman who give so much of herself to others. Together we visited an NGO called Frontiers and were shown around by Jon who is the head of the organisation. Frontiers has impressive outdoor facilities and works with children who have been expelled from school. Their focus is to build the confidence and self-esteem of these children – very similar to what we are doing in POP.
One of the most special classes I taught was the special needs class in Cwmtawe Community School in Pontedarwe, Wales. Denise Cavalli, one of the Deputy Heads and a drama teacher of Cwmtawe is a great supporter of POP and asked me to show them a few pictures of our children who are in the POP programme. She warned me beforehand that they would probably not listen for more than 5 minutes. But, to both of our surprise, they sat for a full hour looking at the pictures and listening to my talk. The best question that I was asked was by Ryan: “Do the children in Africa use toilet paper?”. I also got to meet Delyth Jenkins, Cwmtawe’s financial person who manages the transfers of their donations to the Goedgedacht Trust. It was a great privilege for me to be able to say thank you, in person, on behalf of all our POP children and staff. Here are some pictures of my visit to Cwmtawe Community School:
I could not leave Wales without giving a few talks at Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend and meet the children and new teachers who will be visiting POP this summer. I could not believe that Pete Cavalli, a Geography teacher in this school and probably one of the biggest supporter of POP, made me teach a class on how to measure development for one whole hour! but then again I should have expected that from him. It was also a wonderful opportunity to say thank you to all the teachers, children, and support staff for their wonderful support to POP. Here is a photo of one of my presentations at of my visit to Brynteg Comprehensive School:
I spent the last week of my UK visit in London where I met up with Emily and Mandy, teachers from Glenthorne Secondary School in Sutton. They visited POP in 2009 for the first time and are planning another trip in 2011. Mandy and the students also made a beautiful DVD about their trip which was shown to our children last week.
Whilst in London I had the opportunity to learn more about natural agriculture from Sylvia Ashley and the staff from Shumei. They teach children and adults how to care for the soil better and get better quality crops without using compost. I could not leave without experiencing some Japanese healing which was incredible.
Travel Agent Edwin Doran, in Twickenham, has been referring visiting UK schools to POP for the past few years. I paid them a visit and showed the Africa sales team the slide show which I prepared with pictures of the farm and POP children to help them to explain the POP programme better to their customers in the future. The result is that Hall Grove School who will be on a cricket tour in March this year will be visiting POP and teach our teens how to play cricket.
I also met up with Edward Redmond who has been a great supporter of POP. We spent a few hours talking about POP, and he shared his own experiences, which were incredible.
I was lucky enough to get a chance to say hi to two other friends, Nick Evans ( one of the directors of the Billy Elliot play in London), and Sam Tucker – both have visited Goedgedacht farm previously.
Helen Ellerby from Southampton School in Southampton was kind enough to show me around their school. I got an opportunity to meet the headmaster and children who will be visiting POP in August this year.
This was a truly amazing trip and one that will remain with me a very long time. I came to realise how lucky we are to have so many friends of POP who not only see us as A project in Africa, but as THEIR project in Africa.
My hope is that all these schools and individuals became more inspired by the impact that POP is having on the lives of our rural poor children in Africa, and complete the POP cards and send them to our Grow Peace office in Ipswich.
Together we can help 10,000 more children. Thank you very much to all who made this such a wonderful experience. It was great opportunity to come and say THANK YOU to all in person.
