Their Voice

Lisa & Anne's thoughts on the day...

Lisa

"Driving back on the motor was torturous, my mind was full of thoughts a million thoughts that I just wanted to put onto paper then and there. I was in a bubble and I didn’t want it to burst, I was in a bubble that’s exactly where I was from the weekend that had just past, I am changed. Something changed in me this weekend, a huge transformation that took place at the hands of the children."

"Anne and I had decided to do this project with children thinking that we would give them a voice, a voice that they could have their say, I never ever imagined it would affect me the way it did. I have spent this weekend with some amazing teenagers who have made me see the world differently, made me question the society that we live in, maybe question who I am, made me ask the question why has it taken me all this time to understand so many things and they already get it. They already have all the answers, they already have the purity and the openness. They are already there, but it is going to be crushed by society. In the way they speak it is already happening, they are fighting against it but are told they have no say."

"It just made me even more passionate to give children their voice, their voices were amazing, their words were truthful and inspirational, their passion was pure and their hearts were open with that energy anything is possible, I cannot even begin to write down the changes that have happened in the past 24 hours, but what I do know is that they left us smiling, content and happy and Anne and I left them smiling, content and happy and that tells me something."

Anne

"Working with these amazing girls just sort of happened Lisa and I didn’t sit and plan it. We had no expectations we just went with what felt right to us at the time and doing something with these two girls felt like something we had to do. When I went to meet them for the first time I completely let go, I didn't think about what we were doing, where we were going with it or what we were wanting to achieve. We wanted to just be in the background and listen. I listened to the girls without saying a word. I asked them questions only to continue the dialogue and to encourage them to feel free and open to say whatever they wanted to say. They spoke of their own truth and their feelings in a way they never had before and that little freedom to be able to do that allows us to understand ourselves in new ways."

"At one point when they were speaking of their fears I wanted so badly to show them that there is nothing to fear, that we don't need to be afraid of becoming sick, of dying, of each other and that the world doesn't need to be perceived that way. They reminded me of my own struggles as a teenager and the years following, growing up into adulthood and trying to find my own path, my own identity. While it is that very struggle that has led me to where I am now, I wish that I would have had the opportunity to learn what I have learned now as a child so I could have gone through life with more confidence and an understanding of myself so that I would have been better prepared to deal with what the world had to offer me."

"We need to support each other and allow each other to grow and learn. If we can do that without imposing our own beliefs, or making judgments based on our differences we will be able to see that we all share something in common and that is the power that each if us has at the core of our being. It is just our own natural energy, our inner strength and when we allow ourselves and each other to be our natural self, this energy begins to come to the surface and transforms us, and our fears and self imposed restrictions begin to disappear."

"This weekend has renewed and confirmed my conviction that when we work together and open ourselves up to others we can create the possibility of change."