In November Petra and Jozef, two interpreters working in Page Hall, raised £240 in a crowdfunding campaign to reward children for litter picking in the area.
Petra and Jozef write: We have been working as Slovak/Czech interpreters for a number of years in the Page Hall/Firth Park area. During this time we got to know the community and people within it. We feel that there is so much that can be done to help the community through small volunteering projects.
We would like to help by cleaning the local area and bringing local people together through their children. Through this the children will learn not to throw litter on the floor. We have already done this twice very successfully and the turnout was brilliant. We had around 20 children joining us without even asking them and they all worked very hard to help make their streets look better.
We are tired of constant negative publicity about Page Hall and tension between the residents. A small project like this could go a long way to improve and strengthen the community as the feedback we have so far from the community has been very positive.
Each child will get a card where they will collect stamps each time they will help to pick litter. We will buy rewards for the children who turn up to help on three consecutive Saturdays. This might include a trip to the cinema or town, colouring-in books, books, pencils or stickers. We will also take pictures of children helping and print the photos for them to keep at home.
By making litter picking a regular event, we hope to help bring the community together and at the same time make the streets cleaner. We are hoping that by seeing their own children cleaning the streets this will send a positive message to the community and people will stop throwing litter.
