Brighton

30/1/2002 to 15/2/2002

A special thank you to Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) who offered us use of their office and facilities and put up with our chaos during our time in Brighton. They do an excellent job in providing advice and support to the travelling community. Thank you FFT we think your ace!!!

Devils dyke 1
We spent one week in a car park at Devils Dyke where we charged up all out batteries from the ferocious winds blowing straight off the sea. Due to having a lot of officey things to sort out we didn't spend as much time educating as we would have liked. 5 kids came round during our time one of which was extremely clever and crying out for more input. Its a real shame that we couldn't have given him more time, as it soon became apparent after he had worked his way through all our exercises we were dealing with a young genius. If I'd ever doubted the need for the service we are providing this kids intelligence proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is. Another grant was turned down. Finances and time means that there is only a month and a half left to go. How many young Einstein's will be left in the dark if we cant find more funding!

We started on 'Bellas page' these pages are pictures of the children's pets, usually dogs and involves them taking a picture of the pet with the digital camera, downloading to the computer, resizing and then using the picture in a web page that they have designed, with a few words about their animal. There is a link from 'Bellas page' to the kids pets pages.

Horsedean council site (Braypool Road)

There were only 3 children on this site which was quite a surprise to us considering the size of the site. One child here was very keen and wasn't attending school. One boy aged 3 and his mother spent many hours investigating the nature software that we have. In the middle of the site there was a static caravan which had been decorated and used by the community until it was vandalized, we saw the potential for this space to be made into a fine wind powered computer workshop and discussed our ideas with Sue (Traveller liaison)

We also discussed with her the literacy level (or lack of) of Gypsy families and some of the solutions to this problem. We recommended that the local council use the facility they already have (play bus) but incorporate a system similar to our own, using laptop computers and a split charger.

Devils dyke 2, Poor mans corner

There were two children here who were struggling to keep up with their schooling because of constant evictions. The family were hoping to move to another part of the country in the hope that they could find some peace to pursue their children's education. One of their boys was dyslexic and our software failed miserably to cater for his needs. We intend to look into getting some software that helps children with dyslexia but we haven't any money for this at this time.
Devils dyke is a wonderful place if you have a wind generator, but not if you are a traveller. Brighton spends more money on evicting travellers than any other town or city in the country. Approx £250,000 on height restriction bars in 2001!!