Thame Show visitors Walked through Africa

AS thousands of people descended on the Oxfordshire & Thame County Show recently, international aid and development charity, World Vision, invited them to experience life through the eyes of one child in Africa.

FIRST OF ITS KIND

Oxfordshire & Thame County Show marked the debut for Step Into Africa, a walk-through exhibit in which participants experience a day in the life of seven year-old Ayie as she navigates the hazards of living in poverty in rural Sierra Leone.

Using individual MP3 players, interested show goers were led through African style huts as Ayie talked about the risks she faces each day, from silent killers such as malaria.

?In so many ways, Ayie?s daily life- dealing with chronic poverty, deadly bouts of diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria- is a world away from ours, which is why we wanted to bring it closer to home at events like the Oxfordshire & Thame County Show,? said Sarah Lisowiec from World Vision?s Experiential Marketing Department.

?Step Into Africa gives us the chance to remind and illustrate to the UK public how they can so easily make a difference in the lives of children like Ayie.

After experiencing the exhibit, people had the chance to talk to World Vision staff about their work, and any of the issues they came across, and had the chance to sign up to the charity’s campaigning work or to sponsor a child like Ayie.?

World Vision UK hopes that Step Into Africa, constructed by Hertford-based set designers and experiential agency Scene 2, will highlight what it calls ?the greatest silent emergency of our time?; the millions of children under the age of five who die each year from easily preventable causes, such as diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia.

PHOTO: The Mosquito is a vecta of malaria, a”hidden killer” in Africa