A NEW workbook aimed at schoolchildren is hoped to educate young people around Bude about animal free research.

Bude Animal Friends is a non-profit group set up and run by local people to educate and inform others about projects that benefit animals and people. As their first initiative, the group have created a workbook for primary-aged children which aims to engage and inform them about the positive alternatives to animal testing.

Chairperson, Steph Jones-Giles, said: “We are fortunate that in our group we have a current primary school teacher as well as other experienced educators. We very quickly formulated a booklet that is age appropriate and approached designer Dean Wronowski to work his magic. He immediately understood our vision and turned our text into a colourful, engaging workbook.

“Our target audience is Years 5 and 6, although the workbook is likely to be a useful resource for younger and older children in many circumstances.”

The workbook includes some amazing facts about the qualities of different animals and aims to be educational with regards issues of animal sentience.

The group also wanted to help the young person feel they can positively make a difference, for example, by explaining to them how to recognise cruelty-free labelling and encouraging discussions with adults at home about what toiletries or cleaning products they choose to buy.

As well as the workbook, they have also designed and printed a bookmark for each young person to keep. All of these resources are free of charge as they were able to obtain funding for the whole project.

They plan to roll out this education project in a series of events in Bude this summer, starting with an awareness day at Bude Triangle on June 8.

The group are planning a fun, family event with Moo Free very kindly donating some delicious chocolate bars for those who complete the workbook on the day.

Bude Animal Friends are also interested in talking to primary school teachers working within the catchment area of Budehaven who are interested in trying out the workbooks in the classroom.

As part of this project, they have created an informative banner that they will use at talks for adults. The banner will also form part of their display materials at events to facilitate discussions with anyone interested.

Steph added: “We would like to thank Cllr David Parsons for making this project possible by providing funding through the Community Chest Award. We are also grateful for the support of Dean Wronowski, Redsmart Printing and Ministry of Signs who all worked on this project — enabling us to keep the project local with all the money raised being spent in Bude.”

If you would like copies of the workbook, or want to discuss making workbooks available in your local school, please contact Steph on 07971 454214.