Registered Slum Survivor Event
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Church Name:
Green St Green Baptist Church, Orpington, Kent
Church Contact:
Penny Stradling
Pre event info
When did your Slum Survivor event happen?
21st - 23rd October
What type of Slum Survivor eventwas it?
We're held a Slum Survivor Weekend!
How many people are you hoping to get involved?
Around 10
Post event info:
What happened?
We had 10 young people taking part as well as 4 leaders from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday lunch time.
Here's some of the things they said:
About the first night:
"2 words: Back pain."
"I think I can sum it up in one word - freezing! Most of us slept huddled up in coats, scarves, gloves and layers of tops and socks. If we slept on our sides, the cold air wouldn't hit our faces, but we couldn't win because it was so uncomfortable. I think I can manage a few days living in a slum, but not a lifetime. I can really empathise with 
all the poor people who live in slums - it's so unfair."
About the food:
"I'm soooo hungry"
"I'm still starving"
"Spicy - I ate it all!"
The favourite challenges were the literacy challenge and the football challenge which both went down very well. The young people didn't believe us when we told them they were squatting and a slum would be demolished! They certainly had a few things to say though when they saw one of them had returned to being a pile of boxes and wood! (the leaders especially liked this challenge as we got to be demolishers!).
Instead of the toy or paper bag making we did friendship bracelets which the youth group could sell back to us (with strict quality control) to raise money for extra food, priviledges etc. I've never seen my youth group work so hard or be so excited at the prospect of earning a banana!
Our most challenging time was on the second night when about an hour after we'd gone to bed the slum started to cave in, despite repeated attempts to rebuild and go back to bed we had to admit defeat as we didn't think we could start hammering at 1am! Had to be evacuated to the church hall floor!
Overall we had a great couple of days athough it was really challenging and very cold. The Bible studies really helped to cement it all in our minds and I think the young people have definately been made to think more about others around the world. Slum Survivor ended our half term's programme looking at poverty and it certainly brought home a lot of the issues we've looked at over the past 2 months.
Thank you Soul Action for this and other brilliant ideas, keep them coming!!!
Want to update this page with stories, more info, pictures and other ideas? Then email info@soulaction.org with your requests and we'll get right on it!
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