A PAPERCHAIN of peace created by Kingfield Primary School pupils has helped raise hundreds of pounds for Afghan refugee families.

“Kingfield Primary School decided to join in this fundraising event to help Afghan children and their families,” said the school’s inclusion leader, Helen Sweeney. “The children thought about how it might feel to leave your family and favourite toys and move to a new place.”

The paperchain was the idea of local Creative Minds art therapist Sarah, who hoped it would encourage people to decorate a chain with messages and symbols of hope, friendship and kindness, using the colours of the Afghan flag for the chains. The idea was for the individual chains to link together, as communities link together in small acts of kindness to help one another.

“Each child in the school decorated a chain with a message or pattern, which they then linked into their class chain. During assembly, children from each class in the school held up their class chain and we linked all eight class chains together and then joined this to the chain from the Cup of Peace café [a coffee shop in Kingfield Road] and made a huge circle chain around the hall,” said Helen.

The paperchain with all its messages is now on display in the school entrance hall. With Creative Minds and Cup of Peace, Kingfield Primary School has helped raise more than £500.

“A huge thank you to all of the Kingfield Community for their kind donations,” said Helen. “We hope that we have improved the lives of Afghan children and their families in some small way.”