This summer, Gill Price from the Stort Valley group will be doing five different local walks as part of her Footsteps for Futures challenge. To keep us updated on her challenge, Gill has created her own blog where she will be posting updates on how she is getting on. Have a read of her first post below and check out the rest of her posts over the next month directly from her blog.
Education has been described as the best way to increase the health, wealth and stability of a nation and is a fundamental human right. It is a sad fact, however that more than 57 million children around the world do not go to primary school and at least 250 million children cannot read or count even if they have spent four years in school. I believe that every child should have the chance to go to a school where they are well taught. A good education is a shelter for life.
Thats the facts out of the way, now for the personal bit.
I live in Perry Green, the hamlet where Henry Moore spent most of his working life and where the Henry Moore Foundation he set up to carry on his work is situated. Theres a public footpath running through the grounds from which you can see many of the sculptures. Henry Moore knew the value of education. Speaking of his childhood in Castleford, Yorkshire Henry Moore said,
“My father was a miner at the time of a very long coal strike. We had a very thin time, but my father was unbelievably resilient and ambitious for his children. He had had to learn everything himself, from books and so on. He had had no help from his parents so he had a terrific struggle to do what he did. But he had tremendous hopes for his children and he believed in education and he made us go in for exams to get to the local secondary school, as it was called then; it became a grammar school later”.
One of the sculptures near the path is, ‘Large figure in a shelter’ It is the last bronze sculpture that Henry Moore made (1985 – 1986). It reminds me that a good education really is a ‘Shelter for life’ This last sculpture of Henry Moore’s is the first sculpture I am using in my ‘Footsteps for Futures’ series of walks raising money for RESULTS. I will be walking from my home to the local schools, following the routes that children might have taken in the past.
You can help me raise money for RESULTS here and help to give vulnerable children a ‘Shelter for life’ through a good education.
I decided to take part in this particular challenge for RESULTS as like Henry Moore my father too was the son of a miner who was determined to get an education for his sons so that they would not have to go down the mines. I too value the education I received and I would hope that every child could be given the gift of education.
Being somewhat unfit, the walks will be a challenge but it’s great to know that I will be raising funds to help to change the lives of the most vulnerable children around the world.’
Please sponsor me here and help get all children the education they deserve.
Fancy doing a Footsteps for Futures challenge yourself? Find out more and sign up on the Footsteps for Futures website.