Changing the World at Nunthorpe Methodist Church!

On the evening of Tuesday 12th May, 3rd Nunthorpe Guides hosted a high-profile fund-raising event here at the church, for the charity Plan UK. The principle aim of the event was to raise awareness of inequality issues in poor countries.

Distinguished guests included  the Mayor of Redcar and Cleveland, church members, including Rev Sue Greenwood, reporters and photographers from the local press, senior Girlguiding UK personnel, including the Chief Guide, Liz Burnley and the County Commissioner, Sue Sotheran,  local politician, Ian Swales, councillors, and of course Guide parents, family, friends and even a few of their teachers. 

The ‘Because I am a Girl’ exhibition of photographs and collages, which compared the lives of UK girls with their contemporaries in Africa and answered the question ‘What would you miss about being a girl if you lived in a poor country?’ was displayed in the church itself.  Besides the 60 or so photographs which had been printed and framed, there was a continuous slide show of almost 180 photographs in total, which the Guides had taken at one of their meetings.

 The main hall held stalls selling photograph frames, crafted by the Guides, free balloons and badges, and the all-important sheets of pledges which everyone was urged to sign. In the centre of the room, the stage blocks had been built up, to form a free-standing graffiti wall, and covered with white paper. Guests of all ages enjoyed scribbling their personal messages about inequality issues and other concerns about global injustice, and very soon the wall was ablaze with doodles, slogans and cartoons.

In the back corner of the room, continuous video messages were screened. Recorded by the Guides these ranged in tone from a light-hearted rap and a humorous rendition of ‘A Pizza Hut’, to more serious readings of actual case histories of African girls, and a moving adaptation of the Beyonce song ‘If I were a boy’, with its lyrics rewritten by one Guide as ‘Because I’m a girl.’

At 7.30 guests gathered for the auction of donated items, including a beautiful painting by Shirley Hinchley, a signed children’s book, a ‘Because I am a Girl’ t-shirt and a collection of signed celebrity photographs donated by such famous people as Emma Watson, star of the Harry Potter films, news reader, Fiona Bruce and the entire casts of Coronation Street and Eastenders.

The visit of Liz Burnley, the Chief Guide, was recognised as a great honour. She was very friendly and enthusiastic and showed interest in everything that was happening and in the end went away, clutching a couple of photo frames and a signed photograph of the two girls who had accompanied her round the exhibition, Lauren and Rebecca.

 The whole event raised a staggering £425- 83p, which has been sent to Plan UK towards their target of £50,000 to build a school for girls in Liberia.