Hi everyone! On 28th December I'm flying myself over to Greece to volunteer at the Happy Caravan School for refugee children, located at Thermopyae Refugee Camp. Happy Caravan is an incredible organisation who are combating the lack of education and creative freedom available to children living on refugee camps around Europe. The school is nearly entirley run by volunteers who both teach in the school as well as keeping the organisation runnning using whatever skills they can offer. If you'd like to find out more about Happy Caravan, the work they do and the beautiful story of how it all began then please check out their website here: https://happy-caravan.org/ .

Happy Caravan use an apartment to house the volunteers whilst at the camp and ask volunteers to raise a 200 euro donation to help cover the costs of housing and transporting the volunteers. I have already managed to cover the costs of my flights to Athens and back, so this money (first £200) would be going to covering the costs of being there. Any additional money we can raise will go to supporting Happy Caravan and buying art and school supplies. As Happy Caravan are a small organistiaon a little bit of money really does go a long way towards giving the children experiences and lessons they need and deserve.

I have been aiming to get invoved in the refugee crisis for about a year now inspired by freinds who have done the same, as well as my exploration of clown and the power of joy and playfulness. For me, to simply bring smiles, laughter and education to children who have not only suffered a great deal but still remain in such an uncertain and prohibiting enviroment is the best way to use the skills I've gained over the last 3 years. During my two weeks at Happy Caravan I will be helping to teach the children in english, maths as well as running physical and creative workshops. If you already know me you probably saw about the one man clown show I created for the Edinburgh Fringe this year, 'The Penniless Optimist'... I'm sure Po (the clown) will be making an apperance in Greece too!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read about my mission, please do contact me if you have any questions or want to know more about me or Happy Caravan. Email: elliotmann95@gmail.com