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Photo: beliefnet.com

I am delighted that the education charity Human Values Foundation , of which I am proudly a patron, has launched a book of stories from children around the world about the values that inspire them most. The forty stories and many illustrations are drawn from entries to a competition held to mark World Values Day in October last year.

To mark World Values Day on 20th October 2016, the Human Values Foundation issued a global invitation to schools and other organisations involved with the education of children aged from 7 to 11 to take part in a story writing competition.  Children were encouraged to write an original and creative story about their favourite value.

Inspiring stories about values flooded in from around the world.  There were stories from the UK, India, Africa and right across the Middle East – with different perspectives but with one common theme.  All of them showed what a powerful influence positive values have on children’s lives. 

The winning entry was a moving story by Janna, a 10-year-old from Basheer Primary School in the Lebanon, a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugee children. The story, Garden of Hope, is about a group of girls who are determined to rescue an abandoned garden. 

Second place went to a highly inventive story called Hope Saves the World written by Jed, an 8-year-old pupil at St Paul’s Church of England Primary School in London.  It is about a boy who helps the values to battle the “Negitivions” and so save the world. 

In other stories the characters include a dog-hating boy who nevertheless invents a “Love for Dogs Day”, “Little Miss Engineer” whose determination makes her dream of building a train come true, the ugly troll “stinky as a skunk” who just needs a friend to play with, a dew drop called Daniel that saves the forest, the “richest girl in Europe” who finally learns a big lesson, a group of talkative colours that join together to paint a rainbow of happiness, and the moon and a rose who engage in a poetic dialogue.

A number of the stories are by children in refugee camps, including an 11-year old at Yarmouk Camp outside Damascus, where intense fighting has killed many residents and driven many others to flee, who writes movingly about her absent friends.

There are also stories set in more peaceful everyday settings - at school or at home - where children learn important lessons about values and how they guide them through life.

Forty of the most powerful stories from the competition, together with beautiful illustrations and drawings, are now being published by the Human Values Foundation in the form of a short book.  Click here to download a free copy.

About the Human Values Foundation

The Human Values Foundation is a UK-registered charity which for over twenty years has been providing to hundreds of schools and educational bodies around the world transformational values-based teaching resources which support the social and emotional development of children and young people.

Our Patrons and Education Advisor
Michael Morpurgo - OBE, FKC, AKC & former Children's Laureate
Patron
www.michaelmorpurgo.com
Prof. Kamran Mofid - PhD & Founding Director of Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative 
Patron
www.gcgi.info                           
Dr Kevin A Auton - PhD & Founder and Managing Director of Aseptika Limited
Patron
www.activ8rlives.com                            
Sir Anthony Seldon - MA, PhD, FRSA, MBA, FRHisS, FKC
Education Advisor

www.anthonyseldon.co.uk

For further information please contact:

Rosemary Dewan, Chief Executive, Human Values Foundation, at rosemary.dewan@hvf.org.uk

Charles Fowler, Chair of Human Values Foundation, at charlesafowler@ymail.com

For further reading on the positive power of storytelling see:

Storytelling for the Common Good: Telling our Stories, Sharing the Wisdom