A GIRLS’ VILLAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3911, 26 February 1929, Page 64

A GIRLS’ VILLAGE.

By

Esther

(Special for the Otago Witness.) When in London last May I with a number of other people, many of them like myself visitors to the Home country, received, an invitation through the Overseas. Club to an afternoon gathering at the Girls’ Village Home, Berkingside, Essex. Three New Zealand friends who accompanied me there met me at Liverpool station, and after a journey of about an hour we arrived at the village. A very short walk from the station brought us to the entrance gates. Older girls in their uniform as Girl Guides met the visitors and we were greeted by members of the managing staff. Then we were distributed into parties with numbers, each party having an allotted guide to conduct its members around the settlement. It was a pleasant view that met us—wide stretches of green grass with .spreading trees in their early spring foliage, and pretty two-storied cottages with gabled roofs and walls covered with ivy or other climbers. The cottages, seventy or eighty in number are not ranged in formal streets, but set about in groups and connected by . winding gravel walks. As one passes along the main avenue from the gates one sees the Governor's house and, standing apart, the fine monument with its crowning statue of the Founder of the Homes. Each cottage has its own name inscribed upon it, usually some pretty flower name as “ Honeysuckle,” “ Clover,” “ Mignonette,” while some are. named after the persons who endowed them. We learn that each one has its house-mother and is the special home of from sixteen to twenty children. To make the conditions as much like those of a natural home as may be the children in each home are of various ages from big girls in their teens to tiny ones of four or five, who are petted and mothered by the older girls.

But before making a survey of the village our party assembled in a large room in a central building. Here we were told something about the management of the homes and about the lives of Barnado boys and girls when they have been fitted to go out into the world. Then there was a little entertainment provided by the children. Bands of them grouped according to age performed musical drill, calesthenic exercises, and action songs. The tiniest little tots of all went through some simple rhythmical exercises with a little help from some of the bigger girls. I think the prettiest performance was that of the “ Brownies ” who were very lively and merry, quite up to their name.

Then we went out of doors and under the conduct of our allotted guides made the round of the various buildings of the village. One of the first I entered was a cottage—or “ hut ” as it is called, where electrical treatment is provided, with electric baths and rriassage, for crippled and invalided children. Several patients were being treated at the time; one or two almost babies. Everything that modern medical skill and tender care can do is tried to restore health or alleviate the ills from which the children suffer. Then there is the main Hospital, with 66 beds. It is placed so as to get all sunshine possible and has bright, airy w r ards, and verandahs with folding doors to provide open air accommodation. Naturally considering the conditions from which most of the children come, many are weakly or suffering from chronic complaints. But fresh country air, good food and proper treatment work wonders in most cases, and outside the hospitals the girls of all ages we saw, looked healthy and bright as one would wish.

One of the most interesting departments is a building where girls are taught lace making, embroidery, weaving, and various kinds of needlework. It is designed mainly for girls who will never be able to make their own way in the world, and most of them are in some way crippled or else mentally defective. Some are lame, and you may see a crutch beside the worker’s lace cushion, others are variously deformed, a few have only one hand to work with, others are mentally deficient. I was astonished to see the beautiful work being done by two or three of the last class. Most of these handicapped girls are enabled to contribute largely to their own support, and the work makes an interest in their lives. At present mentally defective children are not admitted into the Homes, but those who came in earlier years are kept on, and their lives made as happy and useful as their disabilities allow.

For robust girls there is the work of the Village Laundry. Here not only the washing of the Village is done but also that of the Barnado’s Boys’ Garden City at Woodford, Essex, and that of the William Baker Technical School, Hertford. So the laundry is always a busy hive of work. There are great boilers and washing machines and wringers, but we also saw many girls busy hand washing at tubs. The clothes are dried on frames shifted by hand levers and below are baskets filled with the dried clothes ready for ironing. All the ironing was being done with flat irons, which seemed to me somewhat primitive for a big institution, but it may be well for the girls to be accustomed to simple appliances for work, seeing that many of them are destined to work in homes where scientific aids to work will not be available. I noticed that some of the ironing sheets were much scorched—as one may see them in private homes very often.

I hen there is a combined Home and Domestic Training School where the girls are taught cooking and all forms of housework, the aim being to make them efficient domestic workers and good housewives. Dressmaking is taught in special classes.

The time did not admit of our seein cr the work of the Village schools. There is a main school and a kindergarten for the little ones, both thoroughly equipped. The church with its square ’tower surrounded with trees is just what is needed to make this Girls’ Village complete. One cottage is set apart as a Babies’ Home for although there is a special Barnado s “ Babies’ Castle ” in Kent, some babies are received at the Girls’ Village and cared for in this cottage till they are old enough to go into one of the Girls’ cottages. We saw some in different stages of- babyhood, evidently tenderly cared for by the sister and nurses. One building served as a receiving home, which children enter on their admission to the Village. There is a large grassy tree-sheltered space designed as the children’s playground, where children of various ages were enjoying themselves, and they are allowed to walk or sit on the other lawns. By the school is an asphalted court where games may be played when the ground is wet. Altogether everything seems done for the health and happiness of the children.

I saw over one of the cottage homes. The bare floors were spotlessly white; there was a playroom with toys and picthe four bedrooms were bright and aiiy with white-quilted beds and a few of the children’s photos or knick-knacks disposed on walls or shelves. In the spotless bathroom there were racks holding the children’s toothbrushes and tooth mugs. Without luxury, these cottage homes provide comfort and all that is needed to train the girls in habits of cleanliness and refinement. Those who are old enough are trained by their housemother to perform the work of the home.

The day of my visit was unfortunately dull, and cold for the season, but even under the overcast sky, the village looked cosy and pretty with its sheltering trees, green lawns and winding walks, and here and there a child’s frock or tarn o’ shanter struck a bright note of colour. I thought how different was the life here and the future lot of the village girls from what would have been had thev been left to struggle up in the city slums from which most of them have been rescued. The last feature of our entertainment at the village was afternoon tea, provided at a number of the cottage homes, one numbered party being allotted to each cottage. After this we had to leave to take the train back to London. We had been most pleasantly received wherever we had gone, and nurses, housemothers, and members of the managing staff had all been most courteous in explaining things to us. Each guest received a souvenir booklet illustrative of the various Barnado Homes, and of course most of us purchased picture postcards which were on sale. As we went along the avenue towards . the station Girl Guides were lined up on each side, standing to give us a farewell salute as we passed. I have always felt a keen interest in the great work begun sixty years ago by Dr Barnado, and it is a pleasure to me to have seen with my own eyes one of those model homes that have grown out of his first endeavour to save destitute children. He inspired others, and though now he has long gone to his

rest his work is still expanding, and will * expand till happily poverty and bad social conditions decrease so that the need for such rescue work will decline. Meanwhile the Homes deserve the support and encouragement ‘of British people everywhere. If the appeal of humanity and kinship were not enough, we in the Dominions have a material interest in the work of the Homes, as Barnado boys and girls may lie expected to make immigrants of good quality.