April: Imperial War Museum

In April the group gathered to visit the Imperial War Museum and the Geraldine Harmsworth Garden, Kennington, in which the museum is situated. It was a beautiful spring day. We were met by one of IWM’s volunteers who took us first to the main atrium, before directing us upstairs to the interesting and arresting WW2 exhibition. After a couple of hours in the galleries we needed a pitstop, so we grabbed a coffee and took a walk around the park. We stopped off to spend some time at the Dalai Lama memorial garden – a well-placed, peaceful antidote to the war museum’s moving exhibits.

One member of the group Ahmed (not his real name) was particularly struck by the mangled wreckage of a car that now sits in the main atrium of the Imperial War Museum. In March 2007 the car was destroyed in an attack in Baghdad’s busy book market, Al-Mutanabbi. The attack claimed 38 lives and injured many more.

Ahmed worked as an Iraqi diplomat and had travelled the world over before he was injured in the 2009 October bombings which killed 155 and injured over 720 people. Ahmed’s scars, like the wreckage of that car, tell the story of a brutal war waged at the expense of innocent people. The visit to the Imperial War Museum gave Ahmed a chance to reflect not only on the traumatic experience itself, but on his life before in Iraq. It was the first time he had opened up to the group about what had happened to him, and it clearly meant a lot for him to be able to connect a museum ‘artefact’ in Central London to his life and the event which shaped so much of his future.

May: Roots & Shoots Kennington

In May we visited Roots and Shoots, an ecological and educational community enterprise project in Kennington. Our wonderful volunteer Malcolm who also volunteers as a gardener at Roots and Shoots organised a visit for the group. We were toured around the beautiful gardens by director Linda Philips. After the tour, the group pitched in, helping to water the plants as well as weeding a new plot which will grow sunflowers in the coming months. Our group enjoyed getting their hands dirty and by the afternoon, just as the grey clouds creeped in, we were given a well-deserved, delicious soup and homemade focaccia – made primarily from the produce grown on site.

The benefits of spending time in nature are well known. Roots and Shoots are specialists in providing training and teaching to young people with SEND, offering not only horticultural and floristry training but also English, Maths, ICT and more to their students. It was fantastic to see this organisation at work and for our group to spend time outdoors surrounded by verdant abundance and beautiful foliage!