Emily’s Garden Foundation
About Emily’s Garden
We have set up this foundation in Emily’s memory. Through sport, drama and education we bring communities together to create a sustainable future.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the Sunflower Run 2024
Together we raised over 4000 euros and ran, walked and cycled over 1050 Kilometres.
About Emily
Emily was many things; fun, kind, brave, committed; but she was passionate about acting, passionate about the environment, and politically aware.
War Child-Team Up
This year we donated 10,000 euros raised for Emily's Garden to War Child. In October, Natalie and Juliet went to visit the War Child offices in Amsterdam to learn more about the Team Up project that we think aligns so well with our Emily's Garden Foundation mission statement.
We met with Sharida and Ines who talked us through the projects that War Child are currently working on including Team Up.
We live in a world where two in every five people fleeing violence and persecution are children(UNHCR 2020). That's millions of children confronted daily by uncertainty and fear and distress. Children are extremely resilient but they need the chance to process their experiences. Play and movement-based activities - such as sport and dance - allow children to express themselves and let go of tension in a safe space. That's why Save the Children, UNICEF Netherlands, and War Child joined forces to develop Team Up: a movement-based psychosocial support intervention for children affected by war and conflict (War Child 2024)
Sharida and Ines explained that War Child believes that a child's right to learn, to food, water, a safe place to rest their head at night, are all inextricably linked to their right to mental health. Team Up uses an evidence-based approach to ensure the highest quality of therapy for the children. Interventions are done through structured play and movement-based activities provided by trained facilitators. The facilitators commit to working with the same children for an extended period of time to ensure that the children feel safe and secure and have the chance to build a strong, trusting relationship with the facilitators. Communication in the sessions is done through play and movement rather than verbal cues, so that all children are able to participate regardless of language. The project is global, currently taking place in 25 countries. The goal is for Team Up to reach one million children by 2025.
See https://www.warchild.net/intervention-teamup/ to find out more
In November Little Amal made a special visit to the Netherlands. She was invited to open the Amare Cultural Centre in The Hague.
Local schools, refugees and communities were involved in welcoming her to The Hague. Emily’s Garden helped to arrange for her walk to The Noordeinde Place on her last day. She was welcomed by students from the British School in The Netherlands. The students sang a song called ‘Everyone Belongs’ .
Amare provided an education pack for schools. The Year 6 students at The British School in The Netherlands who helped to raise money for The Walk had a workshop on migration using some of the resources. All the children were invited to take part in a puppet competition with the winning puppets meeting Little Amal at Madurodam and presenting her with giant tulips.
It was wonderful for the students to be involved in the walk and have the chance to see where the money they raised was being used to raise awareness and support refugees and migrants.
Little Amal visits The Netherlands
One of the projects Emily’s garden has been supporting is Namat, previously called The Green school Initiative, It is organised by the Environment Society of Oman. The aim of the project is to raise environmental awareness within schools and the broader community. Namat Competition 2021-22 saw 274 schools take part from 11 governates across Oman. An award ceremony was held on 19th October 2022. Eight winning schools were announced. It was wonderful to hear about their winning projects. We continue to be impressed by the scope and achievements of the winning teams as well as the support their initiatives receive from their local communities.
The three categories were waste, water and energy management.
Congratulations to the winning schools.
Click the button below to find out more about Namat.
NAMAT - The Green School Initiative
One of the projects Emily’s Garden has supported is The Walk – a travelling festival of art and hope in support of refugees. The journey of Little Amal a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl, created by the acclaimed Handspring Puppet Company. Representing all displaced children, many separated from their families, Little Amal travelled over 8,000km embodying the urgent message “Don’t forget about us”.
See https://www.walkwithamal.org to find out more.
Little Amal is a non verbal puppet which creates opportunities for people to meet from all different backgrounds. She brings awareness of the refugee and migrant crisis and also reminds us of how people can connect with each other through art.
We were lucky enough to go and see Little Amal walk through the streets of Antwerp in October. She was welcomed by a huge crowd of people in front of the opera house where there was a beautiful dance performed for her. She walked through the streets following local children with kites, who were singing and chanting her name. She followed the children to Theatre Plein where she was given her own giant kite. She then took part in a dance and musical performance.
We have continued to support The Walk this year by donating money to ‘Choose Love’ who set up ‘The Amal Fund’ in collaboration with ‘The Walk’, to raise money for the education of refugees on the Syrian/Turkish border.
See https://www.walkwithamal.org/the-amal-fund/ to find out more.
The Walk
Good Chance, which is a theatre group supporting refugee and migrant communities. They build temporary theatres in migrant camps, involving the local communities; and also raise awareness of the lives of migrants through theatre productions.
Good Chance
