News - Empathy Action

Desperate Journeys coming to Tunbridge Wells

Desperate Journeys is coming to Royal Victoria Place in Tunbridge Wells, from mid-February to the end of March 2019.

(UPDATE: Press Release: Desperate Journeys comes to Royal Victoria Place Tunbridge Wells)

‘Everyone should experience it’

‘You have definitely opened my eyes to this crisis’

‘An experience that will surely stay with me forever’

‘An inspired, thought-provoking experience’

The saying goes, “to begin to really understand another human being, you first need to walk a mile in their shoes.”

Desperate Journeys is a powerful immersive experience, designed by Empathy Action to increase people’s understanding of the global refugee crisis and build empathy with the 25.4 million refugees living in our world today.

Each ‘Journey’ can be made by up to 30 people at a time and lasts approximately 90 minutes, (there is also a 60 minute ‘Story’ version) including a reflective discussion at the end. Journeys will take place at set times during the opening hours of Royal Victoria Place, throughout the week and at weekends. We are offering the experience to schools, community groups, charities and businesses…in fact everyone who is interested! Our aim is to involve as many Tunbridge Wells people as possible, not just as participants, but also, we hope, in other ways.

Following a successful launch last year at Tonbridge Baptist Church, and further events held at Tonbridge Girls Grammar school and Sevenoaks School, we have seen a growing demand from groups wishing to experience Desperate Journeys, as well as our other empathy programmes.

To book, click here

We need your help

Empathy Action must build its volunteer base to meet the demand. One of our main objectives in running Desperate Journeys this Spring is to grow our team in preparation for all that lies ahead. We have many opportunities for people to get involved, not just with Desperate Journeys, but with our wider work too. They include:

Joining the wonderful cast as an actor (no prior experience necessary!)
Joining our brilliant backstage team
Joining the super set-building team and helping transform empty spaces.
Helping with the hosting, promotion, marketing, ticketing and administration of our events.
Coming along with friends or family and taking the journey yourself.
Connecting Empathy Action with contacts of yours who may be interested in experiencing or hosting our empathy activities; whether they be schools, businesses, community groups, churches or other organisations or sponsors to help take it even further.

*(The Desperate Journeys experience is suitable for Year 6 and upwards)

Empathy Action is entirely made up of volunteers and we are always looking for regular volunteers (full-time or part-time) to grow the charity and to help us in our work of changing hearts and inspiring action in a hurting world.

We are holding a Desperate Journeys information meeting on Saturday 16th February at 15.00 in Royal Victoria Place. Please come along if you would like to hear more.

To book, click here.

Alternatively, do get in touch and speak to us directly. We’d love to hear from you!

Build a longer table (empathy at Christmas)

If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table not a higher fence” (unknown)

Having developed a number of gifts that give twice, Innovations Manager, Sandy Glanfield writes how gifts can help us ‘build longer tables’ and greater empathy this Christmas.

Christmas dinner calls our nearest and dearest to the table. As a mother, and often host of the Christmas dinner, I can attest to the effort that goes into preparing this feast.

Weeks of planning, cleaning, preparing, shopping and cooking. I can also put my hand up to stressing over feeling that I must achieve ‘Christmas Perfection’ – the ‘right’ food, on offer at the ‘right’ time, presented on a beautiful Christmas table, orchestrating the happiness of my guests.

As I roll up my sleeves, ready to go another round with Christmas, I have been thinking about what it really is that I am offering through this meal. Being the host at my table I have the good fortune to give my loved ones company, nourishment and nurture. I create a place to reconnect, remember, share stories, tell jokes, laugh & build new memories.

Having worked with some of the world’s most marginalised with Gifts That Give Twice and seeing how they can lift people out of the snares of poverty through employment, purpose, skills improvement and education provision for their family members. My table all of a sudden could be something much more than our happiness or even a testimony of all my tireless efforts. What I would really, really love is to have a place for someone who is not afforded such luxuries.

This is where the idea for Empathy Action’s Christmas campaign began. We wanted to kindle the love and community that takes place at the Christmas table and use it to reach others who are struggling with poverty, and overcoming war. Inviting them, through their gifts, to our tables.

I love that those hosting Christmas dinner, like me, can bring this extra element to our tables through a gift for those that they love – a beautiful handicraft with the story to share of its Maker at each place setting. This can be that ‘extra seat’ at all our tables for someone less fortunate. Or even, if you can, invite someone who wouldn’t be afforded such a meal to come to your table!

#buildlongertables

Buy or find out more at the pop-up online shop here (opening on Dec 1st- limited stock available) or contact Sandy at change@empathyaction.org.

Then & Now: “Imagine- children’s refugee journeys”

On October 6 our friends Ruth Connelly, Dannielle Gostling, Mike Clarke and several others from the cast of Desperate Journeys put on a powerful and inspiring show at the Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks entitled ‘Imagine’ using children.

It was part of the Safe Passage ‘Our Turn’ campaign to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Kindertransport, a scheme that ultimately led to the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi persecution on the eve of World War II, and to highlight the plight of child refugees today.

Safe Passage is calling on the Government to agree to fully fund a scheme to resettle 10,000 children at risk over 10 years from Europe and conflict regions across the world – matching the Kindertransport efforts.

Playworks Speech & Drama Education and Sevenoaks Theatre Workshop (groups which Ruth, Dannielle and Mike are involved with) worked with their young drama students to turn a creative vision written by Sir Michael Morpurgo into a moving theatrical production, linking the experiences of children in the 1930s to what others are going through today.

Empathy Action was able to provide support, lending some of the Desperate Journeys set and props, and helping to adapt some of the scenes. For many of the younger children this was their acting debut and they all contributed to help bring empathy for the audience which included local councillors.

The local refugee welcome groups in Sevenoaks and Tonbridge are following up the event with meetings with MPs, county, district and town councillors to make the case for greater help for child refugees.

If you would like to be involved in Desperate Journeys or activities around it please get in touch.

Stitching together messages of peace from around the world

To mark World Peace Day 2018, Empathy Action partnered with humanitarian relief supplier NRS International to run a #PeaceDoves campaign to give wings to a message of hope, peace and reconciliation that went across the world.

The project connected local schools and businesses in Kent with NRS International’s factory workers in Pakistan and Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh. Some even made it to the United Nations for Global Goals week in New York.

Small doves, big messages

Six women stitchers in Pakistan crafted 650 handcrafted dove toys made from upcycled offcuts of refugee blankets and tarpaulins. Speaking about the #PeaceDoves concept, Sandy Glanfield, Innovations Manager at Empathy Action, says:

The doves carry a reminder that for the 65 million refugees around the world, a blanket or tarpaulin is basic necessity to survive. The passionate and skillful women who made the doves, add the love into this story.”

It’s more than just a dove

Empathy Action worked with children at local schools as part of the initiative, including Tonbridge Grammar School, Hilden Grange School in Tonbridge and Lady Boswell’s Primary School in Sevenoaks. The children reflected on the meaning of peace and what peace means to them. They also had the opportunity to buy their very own #PeaceDove.

Local businesses and community groups also backed our campaign, including Juliet’s Café, independent retailer Anna Poulsen, local yoga teacher Helen Bishop and Tunbridge Wells Lawn Tennis Club. Peaceful messages about ethical business practices, community, self-care and peace were shared on social media under the #PeaceDoves banner.

Messages of hope

Meanwhile in Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, an art exhibition organised by the Danish Refugee Council to highlight peace and hope in conflict settings, involved over 300 displaced Rohingya children. 150 of our #PeaceDoves were presented to the children as prizes, bringing joy and hope.

I am very happy with this dove. I like it so much” Anjuman (age 8)

Through the #PeaceDoves project, Empathy Action and NRS International hope to raise social awareness, ignite empathy and encourage private businesses and individuals to contribute to a more peaceful society by spreading messages of peace.

Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about how to bring a messages of peace activity to your group.

Students at share their messages of peace

Students trying to sell the Peace Doves at Hilden Grange School

Taking a Dove made by Fozia to the UN during Global Goals week

Messages from Peace from local businesses including Lili from Pinq Creative

The #PeaceDove at the Global People’s Summit in New York

Tonbridge Grammar School craft their messages of Peace

The Peace Doves in Bangladesh

Empathy Action Gifts partner (Annie Makoni) in Zimbabwe helps prepare the dove for its journey

#PeaceDoves made from the scraps of aid items

Lahore #PeaceDove maker Haleema

Lahore #PeaceDove maker Sana

Lahore #PeaceDove maker Nazia

Lahore #PeaceDove maker Fozia

Lahore #PeaceDove maker Shagufta

Empathy Action wearing white at a Peace Assembly on Peace Day

Peace Doves in Sevenoaks

The making of a Peace Dove

Empathy Action’s Innovation Manager Sandy Glanfield describes the up and coming Peace Dove product and it’s journey from Istanbul to Lahore to being the latest of the Gifts that Give Twice product.

“More than a dove” seemed the only way to squeeze the numerous strands of this project into a single ‘strap-line’. I designed the doves to nestle in their recipient’s hand, but I hadn’t planned on the broad shoulders they would need to carry so many messages; peace, upcycling, partnership, the role of business in creating peace, empowering women, the power of a gift, refugees and love.

We met the NRS International team two years ago at the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey. We felt an immediate affinity with them, and a fantastic energy from their team to explore how they could use their resources to help others. They instantly offered a tent and other items for the then yet to be made refugee simulation. A second meetingat Aidex in Brussels, Belgium cemented the relationship with a plan to create a product together upcycling fabric offcuts from their factories in Lahore, Pakistan.

Our ‘Peace Dove’ is made from the offcuts left when the factory machinists sew together blankets, and tents. It was a creative challenge to find a way to turn the 15cm x 100cm strips of blanket fleece into a dove, but I loved the shared drive to upcycle factory waste and turn it into something that could bring joy. We all wanted to embed a story and a message in them; for them to carry a reminder of those in need of the blankets and tents, in refugee camps, and in disaster situations, left without homes or shelter.

Bringing together the teams and the factory women who would make the doves, is where love comes into this story.

I’ve always felt pride and energised by the joy that is generated by groups of women ‘making’ together.

It was no different in a factory in the baking heat of Lahore, Pakistan. The factory women embraced talking about creating peace, and sharing their embroidery skills, as we all chatted and laughed. They valued the recognition of their voices in working towards bringing peace to the world, and seized the opportunity to learn new sewing skills.

Each of the 650 Peace Doves made will be a gift to someone. 150 larger doves will be given to Rohingya refugee children in camps in Bangladesh. We send this gift with love, messages of hope for peace in their lives, and the wish that, as soft toys, the doves bring comfort and potential for imagination and play. 500 smaller doves will wing their way to NRS International customers and partners, children in UK schools (who will also share their messages of peace), and as Empathy Action ‘Gifts that Give Twice’ for those who wish to share these messages of peace and hope with those close to them.

I have spent many hours designing and sewing these little doves to get them ready for production. The repetition of stitching can be a kind of meditation, giving head space to reflect all the while on the purpose of this project, the makers, the project team, and the final recipients of the Peace Doves. It’s always been my hope that each dove, once nestled in it’s receiver’s hand, will give them a moment to pause – to think about their vital wishes for peace, to feel connected to the people that created this dove, and others around them to generate their own messages and actions.

It’s got me thinking… perhaps “Little Dove, Big Message” would have been a better strapline.

The Peace Doves will be launching on World Peace Day 21st September, 2018 as part of partnership with NRS International. If you are interested in buying these or using them for your ‘peace party’ please get in touch.

Sandy leading a Peace Dove making workshop in Lahore