A Celebration of Home for Ukrainian and Unaccompanied Children Living in Ayrshire

We were delighted to be part of a fantastic event at Ayr Town Hall on 7th February, which brought together 110 students from North, East and South Ayrshire. Nine primary and eleven secondary schools were represented.

The young people who took part came from a wide variety of places, including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Chad, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria and Scotland. Many of them were displaced and writing in a new language. They were guided through the creative process by NSI practitioner Nik Perring, who asked some simple questions relating to food, object, language, experience and advice. Every participant did a fantastic job at translating their answers into poetry to celebrate where they are from, what they miss and what they have discovered in their new home.

Following the workshop, students ate lunch together, before presenting their work to an audience of their peers, teachers, parents, local Councillors, academics and representatives from Education Scotland.

Orsolya Dunn - ESOL / Core Skills Lecturer (East Ayrshire) commented after the event:
’It was amazing to see how invested they were in sharing their thoughts and feelings, the power of poetry will never stop amazing me. I have seen a real drive and need from the students to tell their personal story, so this is definitely something that I will need to create safe opportunities for in our classes in the future. I’ve been very careful so far in my work with them, not wanting to elicit things that could potentially cause harm to the person who shares or the person who hears the story, but yesterday’s event has proved to be somewhat of a turning point.’

Our thanks go to South Ayrshire Council for making the day possible, as well as the Thriving Communities Interpreters, Ayrshire College ESOL and photography, Barnardo’s Scotland Welcome Service and the Refugee Council.