Knowle and Dorridge Lions Bursary Winners Help Raise Awareness

As part of Lions Awareness Week Knowle and Dorridge Lions Club are showcasing the success of their Youth Travel Bursary awarded each Spring to enable one or two 16 to 24 year olds of their area to travel in the UK or abroad to undertake a project which must contain an artistic, scientific, cultural or historical theme or involve work in an underdeveloped country.

Recently Roisin Mendonca and Alison Walker, both of Knowle, met at Arden School where they were both formerly pupils. Roisin returned in August from a six week assignment in Zambia where she worked at a centre for homeless children in the capital, Lusaka. On her right is Alison Walker who will be travelling to Malaysia at the end of September and will assist in community projects in Sabah, North Borneo, to provide facilities such as infant schools, meeting halls, libraries, and clean water systems.

The first Bursary winner, back in 2004, has also been in the news recently. Paul Taylor, then of Dorridge, used Lions’ funding to revisit the children at the Agape AIDS Orphanage in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa He captured their songs and the achievements of their daily lives on film. Paul’s efforts have enabled both a CD and a feature film to be published. His film entitled “We are Together” has been on release at arts cinemas around the country during the summer before appearing on Channel Four and is now available as a DVD. The monies raised have paid for the rebuilding of the orphanage after a fire in 2006, together with its enlargement and improvement. The children have also been able to visit New York and record further music including songs with celebrity Paul Simon.