Looking for the positives

The start of  a new term is always one of mixed emotions. The excitement of new classes, the blank page - the new stationery mixed with the wistfulness of missing family and the slower days of Summer.
 For many children school is the one place that they have security. Following our visit to Kakuma refugee camp the first classroom from our fundraising is now built and will open shortly.
http://www.janehewitt.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-first-of-many.html
 Hopefully this is the first of many - we will keep you posted. I've been doing some editing today and looking back over my Kakuma photos - these are a few that I haven't shared before.

The two photos above are outside Hope school as we were leaving. Children desperate to wave for as long as possible - young children with nothing. Anything I write will sound trite but I have to keep reminding myself of how much I have and how much they actually need.

This collage is of a workers' cooperative where the people there were  making bags both from the amazing material you can see here and also the plastic UNCR heavy duty plastic sacking.
The resilience we saw there was second to none. The people were welcoming, friendly, determined, parents and teachers just like us who only wanted the best for their families and children.
Enjoy your first days of term and remember Education  can make such a difference to peoples' lives x

The first of many

Our visit to Kakuma refugee camp seems a lifetime away. So much has happened since then and sometimes it's easy to forget how much we have and how much we take for granted.
I have however, been overwhelmed by the kindness of people who listened to our stories, who looked at our photographs and said 'OK we are behind you - we understand.' From the young girl who gave me 7p - all the change that she had in her pocket - to the schools who have fund raised, who have committed to helping to create a future for these children.
Some of these schools aren't in affluent areas themselves but they have worked tirelessly. The Dearne ALC has already raised £4,500 and aim to build a complete classroom themselves - what a legacy and what an experience for the young people involved.
Today we received photos of the classroom that was funded by a mixture of donations from our twitter colleagues, family and friends as well as Debbie emptying her wardrobe on E bay!

I'm not sure I've ever been as overwhelmed as I was at Northern Rocks, holding the orange bucket for people to throw 'change' into whilst listening to the wonderful Rachel Orr singing. I confess I did burst into tears when people put in notes, emptied their purses of change - not one person just walked past me without donating - amazing people.

I cannot thank you all enough - the difference this will make is beyond words. Education is the only hope for these children. If you are interested in learning more please get in touch - we have funds in place towards another classroom but aren't there yet so will continue to work as hard as we can. 

The just giving page is still open 

https://www.justgiving.com/ww-ep

 Schools are involved in healthy tuck shops, 4,000 mile challenges, community projects - 

I felt incredibly inadequate on our return from Kakuma but today I feel heartened - humbled but heartened. Thank you all so much xx

#4000milechallenge

I was kindly invited into Springwell School on Friday morning to lead an assembly about Kakuma Refugee camp and to enlist their support in fund raising. I had been into the school before my visit and the pupils had made some posters for me to take with me.

We were trying to think of an unusual challenge and as luck would have it I was sent a link to 

http://www.reachout2schools.com which is the charity set up and organised by @WallaceIsabella (Isabella Wallace) - there were lots of ideas on there but one sparked an idea for us to be sponsored to cover the mileage between Barnsley and Kakuma. A quick check on Google and the #4000milechallenge was born.

Pupils and staff will divide up the mileage between classes and be sponsored to cover their share in any way they can - exercise bike, staff wearing pedometers during the day ...

This idea has the advantage of being fairly easy to organise and divide the 'labour' between staff. You can easily include Maths and Geography as well as the empathy that is needed to understand why they are doing this.

Classroom one has already been funded and thanks to pupils like the ones at Springwell we have made a start on classroom two!

Calling all Northern Rockers

If you are reading this then the chances are that you will be attending the second ‘Northern Rocks’ conference in June. Last year was a mixture of thought, rain, conversation, laughter oh and more rain! It was however, a meeting of like-minded people with one aim – to be the best educators that they can. 

Knowing the sort of people who attended last year I feel hopeful for my plea to you all. As many of you know Debra Kidd and myself visited Kakuma refugee camp in March  –  Debbie's write up can be found on her blog https://debrakidd.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/teaching-in-a-refugee-camp-part-2/ - funds have already been donated to build a new classroom and our aim is to fund as many as we can. I will be running a stall on the day with postcards and images to buy but would also like to run a raffle. Hopefully it can be a raffle with a difference – just 3 prizes – each one a box/hamper – one containing bottles the other books. #bottlesandbooksraffle. and a hamper which has been donated by Belmas which is worth £500. 

 At the moment I have a copy of my book in the books box and nothing else! Yet again I would ask for your help – if you are coming to Northern Rocks and could donate a bottle (can be anything!)  or a book (again can be anything!) please can you tweet (@janeh271) or leave a message on here and let me know  then simply bring your donation on the day.

Here’s to another brilliant day ‘up north’ x

UPDATE MON 4th May
Less than 24 hours on twitter and I have offers of books/bottles from @lisa7pettifer , @debrakidd @hywel_roberts @musicmind @carole_XLIX @realdcameron and even offers of a workshop by @Emmabramley75 

Our Kauma visit and fundraising are supported by 

http://www.wwep.org.uk/ukschools

http://www.independentthinking.co.uk/info/big-i-foundation.aspx

https://www.justgiving.com/ww-ep

Sometimes...

...something happens that just stops you in your tracks, that makes you so proud of a child who has just acted instinctively. This morning I visited an amazing primary school to lead an assembly about Kakuma and the situation that children there find themselves in. At no point did I ask the children to donate anything - we mentioned a non uniform day but that was all. At the end of the assembly a little girl quietly motioned me over and I sat on the floor in front of her. She must only have been 7 or 8. She solemnly took off a white beaded bracelet and handed it to me. 'I want you to give it to one of those children'. With a huge lump in my throat I explained that I couldn't sent 'things' all we could do was raise money and send that. She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out the 7p that was in there and held out her hand. The widows's mite came to mind. Not only had this young girl understood she had been moved to do something herself - not ask an adult for money but to give what she had. I looked at one of the other teachers and wondered which one of us would cry first!
It is humbling to look at how children respond. In a Special school yesterday a young boy said 'we couldn't raise that amount' when we were discussing how much a classroom cost. The response of one of his peers was 'Why not? No one can tell us we can't if we set our minds to it'

Nearly there

I'm sure that by now you are all heartily fed up of myself and @debrakidd 'banging on' about fund raising for a new classroom for Kakuma. If that's the case - apologies and stop reading now! However, we are soooo close - we need approx another £800 and we can have a classroom built within 3 months. We've managed to raise £4,400 through generous donations, friends, selling clothes (Debbie you need to stop now), selling cards, offering our time ...basically anything we can think of. I cannot begin to tell you how much it affected us - how grim the conditions in Kakuma 4 are.

 The dust, the heat, the lack of resources all make life almost impossible at times.

It's Good Friday today and my kitchen side is full of Easter eggs for various children - I expect yours is too - is there any way you could donate the cost of an Easter egg - £2 or £3 to help us achieve our goal - knowing how we felt after just a few days I cannot imagine the horror of this now being your way of life. The best way we can help is to provide other classrooms - 200 in a class is unworkable - each new classroom cuts down on class sizes.

Thank you so much to those of you who have already helped.

Please - we need your support.

https://www.justgiving.com/ww-ep