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Providing Playgrounds for Palestine

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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Wednesday, 14 December 2016. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.

PLAYGROUNDS are a simple part of childhood most of us in the West take for granted.

But for children in Palestine, there is often nowhere to go to enjoy playing outside, spinning around on a roundabout, sliding down a slide or swinging on a swing.

So a group of friends in the Oxford Diocese have set up Playgrounds for Palestine UK, an organisation that literally aims to provide playgrounds for children in Palestine.

The charity has been set up by the Revd Tony Lynn and Lesley Ravenscroft along with Pamela Betts, Frank Paul and Ros Arthur.

When Tony retired from his parish in Hermitage he wanted to do something special with the generous cash leaving gift from his congregation.

So joining the Rt Revd John Pritchard's Pilgrimage for Peace to the Holy Land seemed perfect.

When he came home, he had a sense he wanted to do something to help the plight of those affected by the situation in Palestine. Tony said: "The recently retired Bishop John introduced the pilgrims to Palestinian people and he spent a lot of time visiting churches.

It wasn't a holiday tour and I came back wondering what I could do. " His friend, Lesley, had been on a separate pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and came back with the same desire to do something to help.

"We were both moved by what we saw," says Lesley, a former teacher who runs an educational business and has used her professional skills to help set up Playgrounds for Palestine UK.

"I struggled with knowing what to do and a few days after I came home there was a full-page article in the Guardian on Playgrounds for Palestine in the United States.

Lesley said: "Families in Palestine have nowhere to play.

They live in squalid conditions. "They got in touch with the American Playgrounds for Palestine offering to help in any way.

However, when they discovered that donations to the United States couldn't be Gift Aided, they agreed to set up a UK branch. "Tony, Pamela Betts (a retired teacher) and I met with two other people to pray and we simply said we didn't know what to do, we'd never done anything like this.

We had a time of praying and we felt that God was nudging us to do it.

So many things have come together.

I have a business background so I am reasonably okay with paperwork but setting up a charity was a steep learning curve. "Meanwhile, Tony had attended a reunion with the pilgrims he travelled to the Holy Land with.

"I told them we were thinking of doing this and they were all very supportive.

That really boosted our enthusiasm.

I contacted Bishop John and told him it was all his fault as this wouldn't have happened had I not been on his pilgrimage.

He expressed how grateful he was that something practical was happening and agreed to become a patron. " Author, William Sutcliffe, who wrote The Wall, a novel about an Israeli boy who ventures through a hole into Palestinian territory, is also a patron.

"William wanted the royalties from the book to go to Playgrounds for Palestine," says Tony. Playgrounds for Palestine UK became a registered UK charity in December 2015 and has already raised £9,500 for a playground in Kobar, a village with 1,000 children.

Once that is in place fund raising will begin for a sensory playground at a school for blind children in Bethlehem.

"A number of the children there have been abandoned by their families.

We will be providing work for Palestinians as they will be helping to build some of the material," says Lesley. As well as continuing fundraising, the Playgrounds for Palestine team are working on finding volunteers who can help with their newsletter, marketing, awareness raising and are hoping to build links with schools in the UK.

Lesley says: "We hope to link schools in Palestine with schools here to give children the benefit of learning about other cultures. "They are also building links with Palestinian friendship groups and others who are working to promote peace in the Holy Land.

This included the Walsall Kobar Association, where they joined a group of Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs for a Palestinian day.

"We were all working together.

I commented to a Muslim that we were white, middle aged Christians and he said that was good as it showed them that everyone cares and that was very moving," says Lesley. The situation in Palestine, with houses being destroyed and communities living unstable lives, often in dire poverty, was highlighted in a recent debate in the House of Lords.

"We are not suggesting that we are going to make a vast difference but if we can make a small difference to the lives of children by providing playgrounds we will be happy.

There is nothing political about a playground. "Lesley runs Acumina, a company offering curriculum assessment and development for schools, as well as training and consultancy work for families.

Tony has permission to officiate in the Dorchester Archdeaconry.

They run Playgrounds for Palestine UK with Pamela Betts, Ros Arthur, (a former teacher who now works in education welfare) and Frank Paul, a retired dairy farm manager and a grandfather to children who love playgrounds. Watch a short video of Lesley and Tony talking about Playgrounds for Palestine:

Page last updated: Wednesday 14th December 2016 12:00 AM
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