Lewisham peace campaign wins Prime Minister’s Big Society Award
24 Apr 2014 12:35 PM
Lewisham’s ‘10,000 Hands’
peace campaign was announced as the latest winner of the Prime Minister’s
Big Society Award by David Cameron.
Lewisham’s ‘10,000
Hands’ peace campaign led by young people from every secondary
school in the borough was announced as the latest winner of the Prime
Minister’s Big Society Award by Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing
Street yesterday (23 April).
36
young people representing 13 secondary schools in Lewisham joined the Prime
Minister, bringing with them the campaign’s 200 metre long ‘peace
cloth’.
The
10,000 Hands campaign was launched in January 2013 by 17-year-old Camilla
Yahaya. The campaign gives young people across Lewisham opportunities to lead
changes they want to see in their community and calls on members and supporters
to commit to standing up against violence by adding their hand print to the
campaign peace cloth. The target of 10,000 hand prints has been smashed and the
cloth now contains over 70,000 hand prints including from 16,000 school pupils,
10,000 families, 800 police officers, the Mayor of London, the Home Secretary,
MPs, councillors, faith groups, and youth organisations. The Prime Minister
added his hand print in Downing Street today.
As
part of the 10,000 Hands campaign, Lewisham young people have worked on a
number of projects to create a safer community through social action,
including:
- introducing safe havens in their local high streets and
schools
- launching the Lewisham Peace Buses scheme, which sees
schools and bus companies join forces to make bus routes more
peaceful
- publishing Lewisham’s Young Peoples Covenant to
support communication between Lewisham Council and local young
people
Prime Minister David Cameron said:
Camilla and her team are doing phenomenal work to make
the changes they want to see in Lewisham.
I’m proud to add my hand print to the
campaign’s peace cloth today. This Big Society Award is for all the
inspirational young people across Lewisham who are making a difference with the
10,000 Hands Campaign.
10,000 Hands campaign founder, 17 year old Camilla
Yahaya said:
What we have done here is not exceptional, it’s
just human. This is not about ‘young’ people, this is just about
people - about us, the very vast majority: good, kind and hopeful people who
all want the same thing – safe streets, strong communities and
opportunities for all. Our cloth is just a simple way for us all to publically
claim this for ourselves.
The
10,000 Hands campaign is supported by The Jimmy Mizen
Foundation - Barry and Margaret Mizen joined the young people in
Downing Street.