'Slum' in the centre of Woodbridge
by RUSSELL CLAYDON, East Anglian Daily Times
photo by Simon Parker
A NORMAL weekend for most teenagers is usually spent watching television, listening to iPods or playing computer games.
But over the weekend a group of youngsters from the Woodbridge area dropped the gadgets and home comforts to build and live in slums.
The unusual event was a fundraiser for Christian charity Soul Action, while also allowing the 28 youngsters to experience life as it is for people in the world's poorest communities.
Living on a limited diet, the young people battled through the elements in St John's Church yard, Woodbridge.
Kyle Buxton, a voluntary youth worker for Christian charity Just 42 and St John's Church, who helped organise the event, said: “This came about through a conference we attended in Somerset in the summer and it is a nationwide event that youth groups are doing.
“The promotion material really appealed to our young people who were really up for raising awareness of the situation and experiencing what life is like for many people.
“It is amazing how distracted and consumed we become from the way we live and this is about stripping that down.
“Essentially, as it says in the pack we got, it's about helping the last, the least and the lost.”
The teenagers began the challenge on Friday night by building their slums from basic materials, such as bits of wood, string and tarpaulin.
Only allowed one set of clothes for the weekend and no fire, the young people had to live off just rice and lentils, which Mr Buxton said had proved one of the hardest parts of the challenge.
Aside from bible studies, the group were set regular challenges to mimic the real life world of the people who do live in slums.
Among the mocked-up scenarios, the group trekked through the town for water and went to visit a doctor who talked to them about HIV medication. They also made a football from plastic bags.
The organisers said the weekend was to raise money and awareness for Soul Action projects that work in some of the poorest communities in the world.
This article appeared in the East Anglian Daily Times on Monday 22 October 2007
and is reproduced with their kind permission