Larbert to host global poverty exhibit

An interactive family exhibit exploring global poverty is coming to Larbert this weekend.

The Compassion Experience is a 40-foot mobile trailer, created by Christian child development charity Compassion UK and can be viewed at Found Church on Broomage Avenue on both Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19.

It will also be visiting Larbert High School on Friday. May 17.

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This free family-friendly exhibition depicts the daily lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the world and the struggles they face in accessing basic needs such as education, healthcare, food and clean water.

Within the Compassion Experience trailer Sameson, a boy from Ethiopia, and Shamim, a girl from Uganda, tell their story of their childhoods and their own experiences of the vulnerabilities, restrictions, and dangers that poverty brings in their respective cultures and contexts.

The exhibit also shares how they have both overcome these with support from their local church, and projects embedded in their communities, which ensured they received a quality education, had enough to eat, emotional and spiritual support, and any needed medical attention.

Both now young adults, Sameson and Shamim are now giving back to their own communities.

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Their stories are shown in an interactive way, through various mediums such as audio and visual displays.

Justin Dowds, CEO of Compassion UK said: “When people think of poverty, they often think of the lack of material things, but actually, poverty is the lack of freedom to make meaningful choices.

“Poverty narrows children’s horizons and undermines their ambitions. Our holistic child development programme stirs hope in children. You can witness that hope coming to life through the Compassion Experience.”

Larbert High School’s Learning for Sustainability coordinator John Martindale said pupils were looking forward to the Compassion Experience trailer’s visit.

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“Our students will have a unique opportunity to explore what life is like for children living in extreme poverty around the world,” he said.

“We believe the experience will complement, put in context and bring to life what the pupils have been learning in Religious and Moral Education to help them develop into responsible caring adults.”

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