KATE Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, welcomed Stretford High and Stretford Grammar School students to parliament to present them with a ‘Most Inspirational Young Person’ Award for their work helping refugee children.
Following a tough selection process, Ajai Singh, Danish Amin, Aimee Monaghan and Sania Muhammed from Stretford High and Lauryn Duncan-Rouse, Dylan Holden-Sim and Adeel Anwar from Stretford Grammar travelled to Dunkirk in July 2016, together with some of their teachers, to work in a refugee camp school.
While at Dunkirk, the students worked full time with the refugee children – doing everything from organising and throwing an Eid party to helping the children with their English, Maths and Art. The students also helped the children develop “soft skills” such as sharing, helping others and teamwork.
The work undertaken by the Stretford students was very challenging. The refugee children had very little experience of school and even sitting at a desk presented a challenge for them. However, the students maintained a calm professionalism throughout and were a credit to their schools and their communities.
On returning to the UK, the students addressed a Trafford Council meeting to let councillors and the Mayor know about the work they’d done and implored the local council officials to do their part in helping to alleviate the refugee crisis.
Kate was really impressed to hear about the students work and therefore nominated the students under the category ‘Most Inspirational Young Person’ for a 2017 Kids Count “Inspire the House” Award.
Against a record number of nominations and a very high standard of entries, the Stretford students were awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in the Most Inspirational Young Person category.
Kate presented the students with their award at a special reception in the Terrace Marquee of the House of Commons on Tuesday 5th December.
Kate said, “I was incredibly proud to present the Stretford students with an award for their work helping refugee children in Dunkirk. Their award is thoroughly well deserved and it’s great that they’re getting recognition for their inspirational work. With so much division and uncertainty in the world today, the future of our community certainly seems bright when our young people take such positive action helping others.”
