Ocho

The blog number is in Spanish today in honour of the Spanish exchanges who are in town!


Okay, so today was a BIG day. Yes, for those elephant minded ones of you (good memories!), today was our balloon release and it went brilliantly in so many ways. I can only tell you about the proceedings at Wimbledon Park because I haven't spoken to the rest of the group yet but I know everything went swimmingly and I can always fill you in on all the juicy gossip another time.


We arrived at Wimbledon Park at 2:15pm (right in the middle of break so were ambushed by kids mesmerized by balloons-I felt like the Pied Piper). We went straight to the Year 6 class to set up. The kids were all very well behaved. We started with a presentation teaching the class about who Tug of War and War Child are and what they do. We then told them a real life story about a child soldier in Uganda named Akiki. The whole class were very interactive and eager to  learn more. We then set the children the task of writing a 'hope note' or message to Akiki which would then be attatched to their balloon; one child's read Don't give up Akiki, people care. Some schools then took this time to give the children a worksheet with a timeline on where the children compared their lives to that of a child soldier. Just before 3pm we gathered the children outside, in the lovely eco garden (and tied their balloons to their wrists to stop them blowing away)! We then counted down....
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

.....and the balloons were released. This photo was taken at Wimbledon Park. Swaffield and Allfarthing primary schools are very close together and I hear that their balloons could be seen at the other school which is truly great. I will upload more pics as soon as I get them (I am on a tight dedline). I cannot upload any with children in unfortunately.


The event was a huge success as the children had a great time and discovered that not all children are as lucky as they are and were all eager to help.
 

I really hope that my time for helping War Child is not over. We have been in contact with Sadiq Khan and he is willing to help support us in future events. We are also hoping to have articles published in a few local magazines so keep you eyes pealed (it is likely that I will bug everyone with the links anyway)!

Yours truly, 

the Pied Piper

xx