Span The World with Friendship

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 29 March 2005 13:13:49

This is the motto of The Woodcraft Folk, an educational organisation for children and young people, which I have been a member of since I was 4. The aims of the folk are to build a world of equality, justice and mutual respect, and to teach young people to live with their world and the people in it.

This incredibly important organisation has tought many hundreds of children and adults about the world around them and the other people who share it. We learn that even though people may live on the other side of the world, and may look and speak differently, they are children just like us, who have the same hopes and fears ans aspirations. We explore the outdoors, play co-operative games where no-one loses, and each person has a role to play. Personally, my time with the folk has produced a love of the outdoors (would I be a rambler otherwise?), a self-confidence that no amount of academic achievement can match, and also a number of good friends with similar ideals. I am fairly certain that without it I would not be who I am today.

So, why am I bombarding you with all this information? Well, recently, our grant from the Department for Education and Skills, which makes up a significant amount of our income, has been refused, for the first time in 40 years. As a voluntary organisation, the folk relies on grants such as this to provide important resources, adn cuts are already being made to individual groups. In this, the year of the volunteer, it is tragic that the government, at the same time as supposedly supporting the voluntary sector, should decide that the Woodcraft Folk is no longer an important part of that objective.

So, this is an appeal, to anyone who has ever been involved with the Folk, or knows anyone who has, to go to the website, find the appeal details, and write to your MP. We must make it clear that we won't accept this decision, and that the folk plays a vital role in the development of many children across the country. And, if you've never heard of the Woodcraft Folk before, now you have, go and check out the website anyway.