Seaside trips for charity children
Young people from underprivileged families around France are being bussed to the seaside today
CHARITY Le Secours Populaire is taking underprivileged children to the seaside today.
The event is the 30th Journée des Oubliés des Vacances (day for those left out of the holidays). This year the charity had a record number of requests to take part.
Trips are being organised around France, including one for 5,000 children from the Ile-de-France who are heading for the beaches of Cabourg in Calvados, Normandy. On that trip, around 100 coaches will be filled with children aged six to 12 accompanied by volunteers. The children will enjoy typical seaside activities like building sandcastles as well as sports, music and clowns. A giant picnic is planned on the way back.
Other trips include one for 200 children from Alsace who are going to Marseille, a riverside visit to the Pont du Gard for children from the south and a day at the Han-sur-Lesse caves near the river Lesse in Belgium for children from the Nord.
A spokesman for the organisers said the economic crisis was hitting the poorest hard.
“This day is the summer festival for all those children who have not had the chance to go away, whose parents have cut back on holidays to face up to their bills, which is proving difficult for many of them.”
Photo:Mike Baird
