Your Local Charity Needs Your Help To Support 800 Children This Year!
Supporting young people, children and their families after the death of mum, dad or someone close
Noah's Ark Trust is a local charity, founded in 1998, which provides a grief support service for children, young people and their families throughout Herefordshire & Worcestershire.
Professional staff and trained volunteers work on a one-to-one basis with children and young people aged 5 – 18 years who have experienced the death of a parent, relative or someone close. The support and guidance given, which is free of charge, is tailored to meet individual need.
Children and young people can participate in residential activity weekends, which are held 5 times a year at Malvern Hills Outdoor Education Centre. The children and young people have the opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities and physical challenges, which boost their confidence and self–esteem. They meet others in a similar situation, share their experiences and feelings and remember the person who has died and learn to face the future with hope. Parents/carers can also attend the weekends and take part in separate activities.
Referrals can be made by family members or people working with children, such as teachers and social workers. For contact details please click on the contact tab above.
"Tuesday 20th April was the last time I saw my father. He was late home from work and didn't answer his mobile. At 10.45pm the doorbell rang. Mummy showed two policemen into the lounge and they told us Daddy had been in a fatal accident on the motorway. One of the policemen asked me to make a cup of tea with him. After they left, Mummy telephoned my brothers and sister who were at university. It was only when she told them Daddy had been killed that I realised what a fatal accident was. Richard, Harry and Elizabeth arrived home over the next few hours. The day after a policeman took us to the hospital to see Daddy and assured us he hadn't been to blame for the accident. I went back to school two weeks later just before the summer exams. No one knew what to say to me. I used to smile a lot so that the teachers and my friends would think I was alright but I used to go to my room and cry every night. I felt so lonely even when I was surrounded by people." Click here for Poets Corner
Someone from Noah's Ark came to see me in school; they talked to the school about how to support me. All I seemed to remember was the funeral and what happened; over time I began to understand more about how I felt. I did a memory box which I decorated with pictures of daddy and things we enjoyed doing together I filled it full of things that belonged to my dad I often look at these and smile as I remember why I put them in there. I wrote a poem about how I felt and added it. I also put in things that I know daddy would like or what I want to tell him about. Every time we met I did something, made something or painted something to express how I felt. I joined other children on a residential weekend who felt the same as me, I realised that this time I was surrounded by people and I didn't feel alone, they understood how I felt and suddenly I realised my family aren't the only ones that have been touched by someone dying. We had fun, we cried and we laughed together and I found that talking to people who didn't know my dad was almost as good as talking to people who did know him. I know daddy will be missing from my future but I take him with me everyday of my life, I still love my daddy very much and the love I have will never die and will last forever.
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