Huggers

Candalasina and David Carnell have both mentioned local need in Southwark and Lewisham. Do you have any contacts you can ask about how best to get this stuff to families? We could just do a local collection, make some calls to schools and drive it over. It could be a start.

hi , I have been contacted by a lady in the midlands who found the edf by googling about the programme as she too wants to do somethingand she is looking into stuff her end. In contact also with a primary assistant head in East End who is looking into how we could coordinate something. She tells me when children in Tower Hamlets go into secondary education in can cause a huge financial crisis and some of these children are desperate for second hand stuf Looking into ways of targeting this- the charity shops in poor areas is quite a good idea, but we all like a bargain and it's not necessarily going to reach the people who needit most. also thinking very much of bundling according to size, age and gender

shoes are hugely expensive and with boys specially, the thing they can grow out of in weeks! therefore the item most recyclable I think. If you think how long our adult shoes last when our feet have stopped growing- and yet a childs shoe can last as little as three months before outgrown. THerefore only fulfilling perhaps a third of its potential wearability.

thanks BB100, I'll start cleaning and replacing laces straight away.

great ideas everyone! very encouraged. My children are at secondary school so trousers grown out of in seconds- also because they can afford to have more than one pair they are in much better condition when grown out of and can be recycled. Good suggestions donating those particular items to charity shops out of the area- poorer bit of Southwark/east end. Ive emailed sally army too to see whether they do clothes distribution. Great Brixton link , thanks!

i rest my case.

that's interesting and a way of recycling stuff to people at minimal cost to them- as long as they have computer and I may give that a go, with minimal postage. Do you fix a price? or is that how the bidding goes? Although there are needs for many different things, I am only thinking uniform and shoes. Because these are not personalised items, they are neutral. They are not hand me downs chosen by other children/parents but could become a shared resource. Uniforms all start smart and don't stay that way...so how would anyone else know it is a hand me down? the wearer could have worn it out a bit himself!It's when things are incongruous that you can tell- dated clothes, wrong gender etc. Also a simple idea can expand if it works, but other clothes, toys etc are not based on targeting a very specific need that is not dependent on taste.

yes there may be stigma attached to second hand clothes, but some of these children were in rags, boys wearing girls shirts etc. The children shown on telly last night seemed to have no such reservations. Goodliz, point taken, just wanted to describe to people who didnt see programme how these kids seem to hang onto their values despite their conditions.

just want to add that 'turning to crime' wasnt the thing that struck me as the greatest threat to these funny, articulate, unself pitying kids who were more worried for the burdens on their parents than on themselves and who expressed need, but not greed - but the waste of their potential in the wasteland they were struggling in.

I think doing it through schools might be good idea. But would the stuff go to the right children. In our primary school you can already give your old uniform to the school, and I think anyone could ask for it regardless of need. It was just a good way of recycling. re charity shops- even at three quid a throw, that is still too much for these families. Yes donate to charity shops if you want or some of the time. But I would directly like to send my perfectly smart outgrown uniform sets to those families in areas of economic devestation like the gorbals. David carnell, did you see it? the day to day abject misery was something to behold and these are communities surrounded by the same thing. Do you remember the brown paper parcels we used to make up for the refugees. No, you are too young. Labelled with gender and age. I can't remember who the packages went to, but then they went to distribution centres. The thing is, those families depicted did not have access to charity shops and they did not look like they would turn down second hand stuff. that stuff was just not circulating in such an impoverished community. Yes of course Lewisham and Hackney need the stuff in charity shops, but by the very nature of those localities means there is stuff available. the uniform thing was the biggest obvious social divide thing identifying children at school. It was a source of shame. These children had ripped and undersized clothes. It affected the way they saw themselves and how others saw them. Of course their other problems were huge, but this would be a tiny step to helping out. I am going to ask the Salvation army if they do anything like this. The main thing I am thinking is of all the extra stuff that London must have compared with these other communities.

hello everyone, did you watch Poor Kids on telly last night?http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011vnls just type it in your server thing, it will come up. it struck me that one of the greatest financial stresses on families struggling at the brink was providing school uniforms for their children. Sam, one of the main children in the programme, was bullied at school for wearing his sisters old school shirt and his trousers were too small and torn. This was basic stuff- white shirt, grey trousers. But to replace them put massive strain on the families. What struck me was this- every time I recycle basic school uniform when my children grow out of it, it goes to local charity shops. Local charity shops are there to make money for their charity. They also are in a middle class area which can then take advantage of the bargains in the shop. Uniforms, because they are replaced more regularly, are in better nick. In the gorbals, I doubt there are charity shops for people to shop in that have such a regular recycling of clothes. If the clothes are contributed from the local area they are going to be few and far between, and are also going to cost the needy money. I'm sure the salvation army do some kind of collection and redistribution. What I was thinking was this...what if I could directly recycle my old uniforms and school shoes (in good nick, just grown out of but a hideous expense to the needy)to those kind of families in other parts of the country. Which would mean setting up a national recycling and distribution network, including laundry and ironing happending somewhere along the way unless people really committed to doing that before they donated the clothes. Any ideas? Just think this kind of direct action could have a considerably beneficial impact on these families NOW. We have the stuff- they don't. Please rewatch the prog if you havent. It was so moving. It shamed me. The children were so stoical, intelligent , hopeful, ....

Chris Lynham is firework bum inserter.

I think Emma is running a mini edfest preview season at the Hob over june and july.

thank you for asking Alan, it was a stand up comedy show exploring whether the 'pram in the hallway' really is the enemy of art. What would have happened if Van Gogh had had children? and culminated in showing the paintings famous artists would have done when their hypothetical offspring begged them to ''draw dolly''. Then there was a little dance celebrating female creativity - the magic muff.

I remember..I premiered my one woman show ''the magic muff' at it and saw hugh cornwall in the big top. All run by the original EDT comedy team who sadly were kicked out of the edt to make way for a restaurant but are now happily running the hob in forest hill every saturday. breathes.

God that thread title gave me a fright!

not being vaccinated is only a danger to him, not to others, in the unlikely event he comes into contact with parvovirus.

I know this is stable door after horse etc, but plant some dog rose, briar rose and any wild climbing rose against your back fence- it is extremely painful to try and climb over and may deter. You can get it from the wildlife garden centre in Muschamp road. Also blackthorn, anything like that.

ooh I like F Man- I wonder if he is available to do my showreel.

theyre organised enough to have an industrial sized tea maker at the back of the room.

don't bother to change onto the jubilee line. The overground trains from london bridge to charing cross go every few minutes and it's much quicker to go up the stairs and get onto platform (5?) than to change onto the tube.

how about the porn, from that found on every newsagents top shelf to the stuff freely available on the internet, which condones and profits from the slavery and trafficking of women, black and white, yet which is accepted in our stride? I don't think we'd even manage to get a consensus that that is wrong, so acceptable has it become! Dully was right to object to golly- but history should make us vigilant about our present and future, while remembering the past. I imagine the stall seller was ignorant and is now moritified rather than racist. Now she will probably have a think about it. But Wouldnt it be great if we as consumers used that same integrity, put back our newspapers and sweets and said ' i dont want to buy this stuff from you till you stop propogating the sexual exploitation of women.'

is the shop in nigel road then?

edited for obviousness

she does look very sweet and loved but i do wonder if she would really add to the cool kudos of the car thief in the way they would like. She's probably languishing in a side street, put there by the council, waiting to be reunited. fingers crossed.