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EVENTS DURING REFUGEE WEEK 2009

The Dragon Arts and Learning Centre was extremely fortunate to secure a grant from NIACE to run one main event and a series of ‘taster’ workshops during Adult Learners Week Wales in May 2009. On Monday 11th the centre ran a ‘Junk Art’ workshop using recycled materials. The aim was to create a ‘Mascot’ for the theme of the week, which was ‘Environmental Sustainability’. The members of the centre decided to make two mannequins, one female called ‘Scrap yard Sal’ and her male partner called ‘Junkyard Jim’.

On Tuesday 12th the focus was very much on the outdoors. Learners got the chance to go to two beautiful and yet tremendously different local beaches and had a talk about how important it is to protect beach ecosystems not to pollute these magical environments.
On Wednesday the learners made beautiful picture frames out of recycled pieces of fabrics, beads and paper. Members got the chance to experiment at ‘candle making’ on Thursday 14th and this was the first time many of them had tried it.

Above: Mascots

Junk Yard Jim & Scrap Yard Sal

The main event was off site and in partnership with The Penllegare Trust. The trust was developed in 2000 as a registered charity with the purposes of protection, conservation and restoration of the Penllegare Valley and to create once again a safe and accessible place for all to enjoy. It was a privilege for our learners to enjoy a guided tour of the woods and to participate in forest clearance of evasive species of plants including Himalayan Balsam and Bracken.
The overall feed back from members, new and old, regarding the activities of the week was wonderful. Learners asked many questions about environmental awareness and participated in many activities they had not had the chance to try before. Despite language and cultural barriers everyone learned that even by making small changes in their daily lives they contributed to community development, environmental sustainability and shared the responsibility for ensuring we protect our environments for future generations to enjoy.
We hope to work in partnership again with The Penllegar Trust and Keep Wales Tidy campaign. Dragon Arts would like to sincerely thank Joe Middleton and Phil Davies from the aforementioned organisations for their help in facilitating the event. Thank you again NIACE for allowing us to participate in Adult Learners Week 2009.