How to #Rebuild Childhood Memories

My cousins are always digging up old photos and posting them on Facebook and one of them recently shared the gem above.

That’s me in the backdrop, cuddling my big bro. My sister’s to the left in the vest. Check the trousers. Stylin’!

Here’s another one from a couple of years earlier: I’m three years old and wearing one of my favourite dresses at the time. When I think back, I can still feel the shiny fabric and slightly itchy collar!

My mum’s in the middle, posing as usual — she was the epitome of fashion forward.

Both pictures also star some of my favourite cousins and aunties and it’s no surprise , as we grew up surrounded by extended family.

My parents have endless siblings and our home was often a mish-mash of cousins playing and chasing and fighting and telling tales on each other and making up again.

Some of my favourite childhood memories involve at least 8 of us kids sleeping in a circle on our big round bed in Enugu. Life wasn’t always perfect growing up, but for the most part, we were happy. And looking back, incredibly blessed.
 

Imagine never having a childhood.
 
Having the simple, everyday memories that most of us take for granted snatched away by war.

In the last decade, more than 10 million children have had their innocence shattered by modern-day conflicts in countries like Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan.

Some of them have seen members of their family die and believed that they would die too. Others are forced to carry weapons and use them against their friends and neighbours. Against their loved ones.

For many of these children, war is all they have ever known.

ActionAid’s REBUILD campaign is hoping to secure more than 2,200 new UK child sponsors for children in war-affected countries. The charity’s child sponsorship programme enables vital work giving children basic support such as water, food and an education.

As part of the campaign Actress and ActionAid Ambassador Sarah Alexander travelled to Sierra Leone, a country recovering from civil war, to visit ActionAid’s child sponsorship work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfSmAdNdFE4
 
She said of her trip: “Children in conflict are at the forefront of everyone’s minds due to what’s happening in Syria. I’ve seen with my own eyes just how devastating the effects of war are long term on generations of children. Please help us to give everyone the right to a happy childhood.”

You can save a life today. It costs less than £4 a week to sponsor a child with ActionAid. And it takes less than a minute to Tweet. Help spread the message or simply join the conversation on Twitter @ActionAidUK and tell us you’re supporting #REBUILD www.actionaid.org.uk/child. Please pass it on.