Overland with Kids

A primary goal (amongst many, including a daily education routine) of the trip is to increase our own and our children’s self-awareness and appreciation as to the quality and comfort of our lives here in the UK - especially our educational environment and opportunities, compared to that of others around the world.

We have always been interested in UNESCO and plan to visit as many of it’s listed World Heritage sites along our route. We are particularly interested in the work of UNESCO in support of it’s ‘Programme for Education for Children in Need’ www.unesco.org/shs/childreninneed and also the commitment of the UK children’s author Lauren Child as part of this. Please see  www.mylifeisastory.org

We have been looking at ways in which we can combine the above with our own children’s school in support of children’s project/s in Moldova where strong links exist with the community in Burcalu including fund-raising events, a link teacher visit and supplies which have already occurred there in support of it’s educational aids and requirements.

With this in mind, we would like to raise funds and provide some voluntary assistance and support as part of our trip goal toward the Moldovan Children’s Project/s our children’s school is involved and have also been in touch with the author Lauren Child.

We are delighted with the response Lauren has provided - she has very kindly given us permission in principal (subject to contract and which must detail instances of performances and dates etc.) to host a series of puppet shows (which we and our children would take responsibility for making, producing and enlisting the help of other children), based on the book called ‘That Pesky Rat’ taken from Lauren’s www.mylifeisastory.org project in support of UNESCO’s campaign. As of June 2008 and for a period of three years, a special edition of Lauren Child’s book, ‘That Pesky Rat’ is on sale in bookshops and retail outlets across the United Kingdom with combined profits from both author and publisher given over to UNESCO’s ‘Programme for Education for Children in Need’ which, aims to ensure every child in the world is provided an education by 2015. We are hoping that we can assist Lauren and UNESCO in raising the profile of this very important cause, while at the same time raising money for the Moldovan Children’s Project/s that our own children’s school supports.

We anticipate performing these puppet productions later during 2009, at and for our children’s school, charging a small fee, by way of raising funds for Moldova while at the same time presenting some background about UNESCO, Lauren Child’s book and the Moldovan Children’s Project/s to help further widen awareness about street children and the importance of education for all.

In addition, we are also hoping to be able to visit the school in Moldova as part of our travel route, subject to permission and only if non-intrusive, to hopefully help further strengthen the bonds which already exist.

We are now in throes of writing to our children’s school regarding all of the above - so wish us luck, as we are sure the school has a busy itinerary and important considerations at the best of times. Finally, we are currently asking Lauren if it would be possible for us to use ‘Pesky’ as the mascot for our trip as we feel it would be a perfect representation of our trip and we’re sure our children would love him to be emblazoned on our vehicle whilst travelling.

Ultimately, we want this trip to be very much about the children and want to involve them as much as possible before we go but are mindful not to try not to take on too much, particularly as we both work full-time currently. However, we are unable to ignore the fact that while we are busy in the day-to-day running of our lives, we are very lucky to be able to undertake this epic ‘once in a lifetime’ adventure and want to contribute in some small way as a result.

For our children Jessica and AJ, it provides an excellent basis for self-awareness, consciousness and involvement which we feel would prepare them well for their travels and their future lives.

From our perspective time-wise, due to the nature of our trip, we envisage that most fund-raising will occur before we actually travel e.g. over a 6 month period between June - December 2009, with any preparation occurring beforehand. Meantime, please log onto www.mylifeisastory.org and ‘buy the book!’ which is £5.99 and available from Amazon. If you do decide to buy the special edition (Unesco version) of the book as a result of linking from our site, we’d love for you to contact us and let us know so that we can know that we have made a small positive contribution by way of our website - it will assist us in determining how our fund-raising and awareness campaign is going. Many thanks!

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