Learning to be Slum Survivors

A group of youngsters from Poulner Baptist Church, Ringwood were in the Furlong last Saturday as part of a Soul Action initiative to raise awareness of how millions of people have to spend their lives in third world countries.

As part of the Slum Survivors project, Poulner Baptist  pastor, Tim Cracknell, who is also a youth worker, organised for some twenty youngsters to discover what it is like to live in poor conditions, the way billions spend a lifetime.

The youngsters aged 15-21, camped in a field and built their own shelter from whatever came to hand: wood palettes, old tarpaulins, tin cans bits of iron and wood. 

Said Tim Cracknell. "Last night they realised that they should have made their "Slums" waterproof.  The project is to raise awareness, but also to make these youngsters and others like them, be more grateful for what they have already"

They displayed photographs in the Furlong of the make shift dwellings they created.  

It is hoped that the experience will make them understand better how people in dire poverty have to live and hopefully make other people more aware of these sometimes forgotten masses and the importance of supporting projects such as Fair Trade.