Teenymunchkins’s Weblog

When I was a child at school I was very badly bullied and although my parents were great,  I never felt I had enough support to get through it.  I wasn’t strong enough to ‘fight back’ and spent much of my school life on the edge of friendships and my confidence was hugely knocked.

I was delighted to come across an anti-bully campaign whilst surfing Facebook and am proud that Anita Hunt has sent me a piece for my blog detailing the work she does.

Anita Hunt wanted to support the work of Bullying UK – www.bullying.co.uk , by raising funds and promoting their work.  Bullying UK supports over 500,000 people a year for a cost of just £50,000 a cost of just 10p per person supported, Founded 10 years ago Bullying UK is the leading Anti-bullying charity and a safety net for UK children when all else fails.

As a part of Anita’s fundraising efforts, they have a Just Giving page for this purpose – www.justgiving.com/areyoubeingbullied.

Due to her experience of bullying through personal experience, research, and working with young people, one of the most difficult aspects surrounding this sensitive issue,  is that many people whether children or adults, find it very hard to talk about.

Anita wanted to find a way to encourage families, schools and communities to talk about this subject.  She decided to write a children’s novel aimed at 8-12 year olds which is a fun story, but has the underlying theme of encouraging those affected by bullying to tell someone / a safe adult.

The book – ‘Matty-boy & The Secret Pigeon Racket’ was published in April 2009 and very quickly a website was developed to not only provide a platform to talk about the book, but to be a place where a discussion could take place; to offer suggestions of how to cope and where to go for help. 50p from every book sale will be donated to the work of Bullying UK. The book is available through their website for £8.99 plus p&p as well as other gifts such as cards, a key-ring and tote-bag. The book can be ordered through other shops such as Amazon and Waterstone’s.

The book gave an ideal opportunity to begin a campaign to spread Percy’s message; a pigeon that helps his friend Matt to tell a safe adult that he is being bullied, so that he may be able to receive the help that he needs.

Percy’s campaign has been receiving great support through twitter, if you would like to follow their work on Twitter please follow @percythepigeon .

Recently the campaign has spread to Facebook, you can find his page here – http://companies.to/percythepigeonscampaign

As a part of the campaign, they are working on spreading his message into as many schools as possible, by inviting knitters to knit a mini Percy from their specially designed Percy pattern by Alan Dart, which can be found through their website. Kristina from Flutterby creations, has very kindly set up a Ravelry group for knitters to join the campaign, as well as putting a Percy Kit together, with all that you need to make a Percy for £2.50, (50p will be donated to Bullying UK from each sale.)

If you would like to help with this campaign, more information can be found on Anita’s website www.areyoubeingbullied.com, they have many suggestions of ways you can help.

If you are affected by bullying please contact Bullying UK, or one of the other organisations listed on their website, you do not have to deal with it alone.

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