Dilini De Silva Elia

Got to finally meet up with my long distance translator/LAFF volunteer Maisie. Up until now it was all skype and e-mails, it was lovely to be able to put a name to the face at last.

Maisie had requested to be a volunteer for LAFF last April, Fran thought she’d be best suited in assisting me with the Spanish adaptation of the school pack. This of course was a great idea as Maisie was studying Spanish at university in Leeds but spending a year in South America, particularly Argentina.

She was so lucky she also got to visit Peru, which I have longed to see, especially after working for LAFF and learning and seeing so much about Peru, without ever being there. Better to know a lot about such a beautiful place than nothing at all I guess … I’ll get there one day

Anyway back to my meeting with Maisie – after having a very long but wonderful chat with her, we got down to work to come up with even more ideas for the school pack. So far we’ve got ‘Famous Stars, Leaves and Stripes’ – a flag game, role play entitled ‘Where are you from?’, ‘Ooooh what do we see here?’ – a descriptive game, two word searches as well as the foundations of the orginal pack. I’m really enjoying working with Maisie – two heads are definitely better than one!

I’m soooooooooooooooo excited to see how this pack turns out!

Met up with the lovely Sarah and Fran, who I have been longing to meet in such a long time. I had been working with them from afar, as Fran was in Peru and Sarah had been in Indonesia, so all we knew of eachother was through phone calls and photos. It was so nice to finally put a name to the face.

Holly joined us too in Clapham to discuss the future of the LAFF school packs, all of which was very exciting. I was delighted to hear how happy they all were with the school packs and how we were going to move forward with it.

Sarah, Fran and Holly are just going to spruce it up with a few finishing touches and then start sending them off to schools who are looking to participate; whilst I continue with developing the Spanish school packs with Maisie. How wonderful!

Still Supporting LAFF as usual…very much looking forward to meeting fellow LAFF volunteers in person for the first time this summer!

Looking to send out the completed school packs this autumn for the new school year!

But just thought I’d add that…

…also another very good cause.

Wow this should have been updated a while ago, sorry about the wait.

Well the beginning of May was pretty amazing, the long awaited visit to see the all important teachers finally came around.

I made a visit to Solihull, Birmingham, to meet the lovely Julie Brown and Merilyn Barrett to present to them the completed Geography Key Stage 3 LAFF School Pack.

I must admit I was quite aprehensive to see what their response would be, being that they of all people, would know what would be best for the kids. The fact that I had never had done anything like this before, I was pretty sure that despite the school pack looking great, that it couldn’t have been what they would be looking for. But woah was I wrong…they loved it! I was thrilled…how exciting all the crazy hard work paid off! They were so pleased as was I.

On top of all of that to my disbelief, they saw me as a rolemodel for the students and wanted me to do a little speech for the year 7s, 8s and 9s the next morning, about myself, what I’ve done, what I’ve been doing and how I got here. It was also a very important assembly for the International Day for Street Children, which is on the 12th April every year.

Solihull school, the teachers and students were amazing, so sweet, polite and very kind. I had a wonderful time there, now the school packs are all set to go out for the next school year!!!

Here’s some photos from my visit to Solihull School…

Was so happy last friday as the school pack was complete, looking great…I’m so happy with it.

Now it’s time to make school packs for other subjects and spread the word! Finished Geography school pack…now on to Spanish, with the help of Maisie in Argentina, then got to move on to Citizenship and PHSE, which are definitely all the relevant subjects for LAFF to be exposed through.
And to go with all of that is the excellent fundraising pack created with the help of Pete, Sarah, Fran and myself. This has been sent to our connected schools, with the hope of some great fundraising in aid of the International Day for Street Children (12th April). If you want to get involved in some fundraising for LAFF please visit the website through my blog.

If you’re a teacher of any of these subjects and happen to be reading this, let me know and I’ll send you a pack!

The LAFF school pack is coming along nicely…I’ve been working so hard on it…all of which has been more than worth it.

It’s been so great creating the pack as it involves a hell of a lot of research, organisation and creativity too.

So far there is all sorts of things in the school pack: role plays, debates, questions, case studies, photos, LAFF video, LAFF info, multiple choice game – ‘who wants to be a chocolataire?’, the Latin America map game, Latin American Cities word search, LAFF leaflet, fundraising pack of ideas, resources etc.

I’ve learnt so much myself from the pack…so hopefully the kids will too.

Been keeping busy. Doing lots of research on street children, mainly in Peru. Some of which is so heart-warming, some really upsetting. All in all it will be great to include in the school packs that I am creating. I am really happy about the whole prospect of letting kids over here learn about kids over there. Hopefully leaving them with a lasting impact and the motivation to do some exciting fundraising for LAFF. It’s great that I’m learning so much from it too.

Met the two London trustees of LAFF (Alice and Jenna) yesterday, who may I add were lovely. Fran, who is making a world of difference over in Peru has been a really good support for me, considering that she is quite a while away.

I have added a video of the wonderful work of Laff here, so have a look and see what they’ve been up to…