St. Aldate's Oxford Volunteers at Riverkids

It has been another miraculous day in the cozy house of Riverkids Project. The children’s capacity to get skilled in a very short time is one of the human expressions closest to those events called miracles. And it has happened again. It has been about ten days since a group of four volunteers from Oxford stepped into the Riverkids Project community: Mark Rye, a teacher of photography, his wife Jenny, a nurse, Rachel Whitney, a social worker , and Anna Hayward, a teacher of music.


Thanks to the amazing job done by Mark and Rachel, who were able to provided the children with photography and chorus skills by means of warmth and enthusiasm, those present have enjoyed an outstanding performance of singing and a remarkable exhibition of pictures.


However, it’s not been just due to Mark and Anna. The whole Riverkids staffs have worked hard in order to develop the children attitude to different arts subjects. Indeed, the morning schedule began with the exemplary break dance executed by boys: time by time each of them tookthe center of the stage and performed a breathtaking series of leaps, bounces, somersaults, handstands and twists.


If you think it was a great moment, you are right, but it was only the appetizer. If you had attended to the rehearsals, you couldn’t have waited for the girls’ performance directed by Anna.



The girls, all white dressed, placed themselves throughout the stage and sang some hits such as “The lion sleeps tonight”, “Sunshine in my heart”, and “Jingle Bells”. When voices of many children join together to sing a song and become and unique voice is always an overwhelming experience, but it happens often that they get too excited and end up to lose the track. It has never happened today: the girls have danced and sung in tune with music played by the band.

After a deserved break enriched by delicious food, it was the time to be delighted by the beautiful pictures taken by Mark’s class. Almost thirty portraits hung on a thread depicted Riverkids’ children and staff: some of them could be exposed in a museum thanks to their color intensity, their accurate frame and their capacity to communicate characters’ feelings.


Afterwards, the schedule was completed by new performances of break dance and choruses. Unfortunately, it was the last act before joining altogether on the stage and then leaving with the heart fulfilled with emotions. AlessandroRizzi