AND FINALLY
Hope grows when city kids muck in
THESE days I rarely go to London, preferring life in the sticks, surrounded by trees. But I’ve just made a special journey there for a party to celebrate a charity I’ve admired for ages.
Farms For City Children (FFCC) was founded more than 40 years ago by the brilliant, much-loved author Michael Morpurgo, a former teacher whose novel War Horse continues to move and inspire.
He and his wife Clare noticed how many pupils were ‘failing’ at school, so they moved to Devon to give city children a chance to experience ‘muck and magic’.
The charity has grown to three farms, where about 3,200 pupils and 400 teachers a year visit.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Letting inner-city children breathe country air, tend animals, eat vegetables, tramp in mud and smell grass for one whole week of work and fun. But it works miracles.
Of course, this costs money, which is why FFCC is always fundraising. But Sir Michael could regale you with many stories of how it changes lives (farmsforcitychildren.org).
I have visited a similar scheme called Jamie’s Farm (jamies
farm.org.uk), which also offers disadvantaged young people a busy stay on one of its farms, after which they thrive. How come? Because both marvellous organisations have
proved how children can be shown a life beyond the TV and sometimes destructive peer pressure, and even those excluded from school can have their lives turned around.
If children are never exposed to the glorious natural world of field and farm, how will they care about our environment in the future? ‘Muck and magic’ is their right and their heritage.
PS: You like to be told...so I won’t be here next week. We’re leaving our own beloved ‘muck’ for a week in Malta. My daughter, her husband and two children are living with us for a few months — so house, dogs and chickens are theirs, while we seek sun. And some peace!
Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB, or email bel.mooney@ dailymail.co.uk. A pseudonym will be used if you wish. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.