We were delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Homeless Children’s Foundation again this summer.  

The Trust sponsored five young children to attend the Audubon Junior Guide Camp. It was a great opportunity for them to socialise with other children and learn some valuable life and nature skills. They learned the art of photographing nature as well as participating in more vigorous activities such as hiking and kayaking. The children were encouraged to keep a journal and describe their experiences and thoughts on the camp.

As each summer passes, the members of staff continue to become more experienced in dealing with trauma and poverty and have been able to revise their curriculum to better suit the needs of the teens and children they are serving.

“Dear Sponsor, I’m grateful for you putting me in the Audubon Camp. I had an opportunity to do things I haven’t done before. You mean everything to me. The photography was awesome to experience."

This summer, one activity that was incorporated into the teaching programme was Bird Language. In this lesson, the children and teens disperesed outside to observe their surroundings for ten minutes alone. During this time, they wrote down the things they could see and hear. Following this they joined together in groups and compiled the data to see what trends they could observe.. Just like a puzzle, each child had different observations to contribute based on where they were standing and what direction they were facing.

In all it was a huge success for the five children who attended. One of our junior guides spent 98 hours this summer assisting with camp.

“Dear Sponsor, Thank you for funding my week at the Audubon home. Thanks to you, I was able to navigate in hiking, kayaking, and several other hobbies of mine. I’ve learned much more than I had originally hoped to; the camp exceeded my expectations. I know that this wouldn’t have been possible without you, so once again, thank you for thoughtfully and generously providing me with the money to attend the camp."

A sketch by one of the sponsored children