World Earth Day

My name is Hannah and I was a volunteer in an orphanage in Caravelí, Peru 2015/16. One of the International Days that my two partners and I decided to celebrate was World Earth Day, and it turned out to be one of the best highlights of an incredible year away!We chose to mark this day because the children we were working with had little knowledge of quite how amazing the world they live in actually is, outside of their everyday bubble of school and orphanage life. We thought this would be an excellent opportunity to teach them how little things can make a big difference in protecting our

planet.

First of all, we made a big tree using cardboard, and then got the younger children to work together to collect various leaves and greenery before sticking them on to the cardboard tree, which would be used as our sign for what was to come.This was a great interactive activity to entertain whilst teaching them some facts about the Earth.The most rewarding part involved doing a fashion show, with a twist. Alongside the children, we created

40 different outfits for each child out of recyclable materials, ranging from a suit made from printer-paper wrapping and a cardboard Mexican musician, to a newspaper ballet dancer and a white plastic bag and CD wedding dress, which was my proudest creation! The process took about a month of preparation, lots of measurement-taking of excitable children, too much glue, rummaging in bins scavenging in streets, and a very messy

house by the end, but it all paid off! During this time, we focused a lot on emphasising the importance of recycling and reusing, the latter being a more achievable goal for the orphanage, as a proper recycling system is not yet in place in the town.

The fashion show took place in the town centre, and the children were in their element parading in front of a crowd, which was wonderful to see as they so proudly showed off their creations. The town council had organised a stage and a catwalk with lights and music, which really completed the occasion! Several children evenwon prizes from the council, which caused much excitement. This gave them the opportunity to show off their creative skills in the making of the costumes, a confidence boost during the show and the feeling of working towards a common goal with their peers, which can be difficult for a child living in an institution.

It was so rewarding to see something that we had worked so hard for be such a success and a source of great entertainment for the children! The more effort put in to something absolutely means that more will be gotten out of it, whether that be making 40 fashion items from recyclable materials or something completely different, the end result is so worth it.Celebrating this International Day was brilliant fun for all involved, and it is moments like this from my year that I will remember for the rest of my life!