Otley pupils flying their kites to raise awareness of poverty (From Ilkley Gazette)
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Otley pupils flying their kites to raise awareness of poverty
12:01pm Friday 22nd March 2013 in News
By Claire Lomax
Children from Bramhope Primary School who are taking part in the kite event, from the left, Luke Schoeman, Ailsa Madill, Dylan Nila and Sandra Kusmider
The skies over Otley will tomorrow be filled with colourful messages urging an end to poverty.
More than 200 local schoolchildren have been busy creating and decorating kites for the awareness-raising event at Wharfemeadows Park.
The mass kite launch, at 1.30pm, is the culmination of a programme of work investigating global hunger that pupils from Otley, Bramhope and Pool-in-Wharfedale have been undertaking with Oxfam.
Children from eight schools will gather in the park for the Oxfam Flying the Kite for Food initiative, which has been supported by Otley Town Council funding to ensure children from all members of the Chevin Learning Partnership could take part.
Headteacher of Otley’s Westgate Primary School, Helen Carpenter, said she was really proud of the work all the students had put in.
She said: “2013 is a big year to tackle hunger and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for our pupils to make their voices heard as part of the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign.
“We hope that when people see them flying their kites they will take their messages on board.”
Those messages will include the phrase ‘multicultural world’ on the kite of one ten-year-old from St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, who said she had picked it because “everyone needs to work together and share food more equally”.
International charity Oxfam, one of more than 100 other organisations that teamed up to launch the Enough Food For Everyone IF initiative, says almost one billion people go to bed hungry every night, while two million children die of malnutrition each year.
Oxfam youth and school campaigner Jo-Anne Witcombe said: “I felt it was really important to give the children of Wharfedale a voice.
“Hunger is a huge issue, both in the developing world and the UK. This year, as the children have clearly stated with their kites, no IFs, no buts: we can and we must eradicate hunger.”
The IF campaign is urging governments to act so that everyone has enough food to live a healthy life.
The schools taking part in the big kite launch are: Westgate Primary School, Ashfield Primary School, Bramhope Primary School, Whartons Primary School, All Saints C of E Primary School, Pool C of E Primary School, Saint Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Prince Henry’s Grammar School.
