Make Space for Children

The charity, ‘Make Space for Girls’ was founded in 2021 to campaign for better provision for teenage girls in parks and other public spaces.  ‘We campaign for parks and public spaces to be designed for girls and young women, not just boys and young men.’ (www.makespaceforgirls.co.uk).  One of us remembers one of the charity’s very telling illustrations of how boys and girls move around a school playground.  The trace of the boys’ footsteps zigzagged madly all over the available space.  In contrast the girls were, literally, marginalised, clinging to the edges of the space or moving around the circumference. 

It’s not just that girls can feel excluded from spaces which suit boys well; girls seek different facilities and environments in which to hang out. 

‘Overall, teenage girls do not feel that public spaces – whether parks, recreational grounds, urban areas or facilities – are intended for their use or are places where they are welcome’ (https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/127290/html/) , and that girls and young women tend to feel that their voices are not heard and their needs are not met. 

I was strongly reminded of the work of Make Space for Children when Terroir recently visited an exhibition mounted in a small art gallery in Granada, Spain (Galeria Toro Brossard, Calle San Miguel Alta, 15).  Exposición “Memoria de Una Infancia” is the work of Egyptian born artist (and now 20 years a Spanish resident), Husam Said, and is a celebration, a reflection and an extraordinary meditation on his childhood in a village near Tanta, about a 100 km north of Cairo.  Several things struck us as we viewed and absorbed the images around us. 

In Said’s paintings, children’s play does not seem to be segregated as it so often is in the UK.   Obviously not being confined to a fenced ‘playground’ must allow significant fluidity in play and use of space.  When your village is your playground, girls and boys, in active or quiet play, in huddles or adventuring can mingle or disperse as need arises. 

Image above: girls and boys play hide and seek together in the play ground which is also their village

‘Huddles’ have obviously been an important part of this Egyptian childhood.  The importance of ‘nests’, safe places, ‘secret’ places, contained places – call them what you will – seem to have been as important to Husam’s childhood, as they are today.  Modern parents worry about children in ‘hidden’ places but the Husam’s nests seem to be contained but never invisible to others.

A village structure and community is also revealed by this celebration of childhood.  What child could not be entranced by the dovecots (image left) – those weird cones in a village of rectangular buildings, where birds not humans provide constant movement  - or, with adults, visiting the nativity by lantern light (below). 

But the games, oh the games: a different continent, a different lifestyle, but so, so familiar.  We would call them Hide and Seek, Blind Man’s Buff and Hopscotch.  There are marbles (image right) and a circle game featuring stick and ball whose name Terroir can’t remember.  Girls and boys play together; there is rhythm and movement, excitement and intensity. Even Husam appears – a key player but not the protagonist (can you spot him in the image on the right?)

Marbles are obviously an important part of Husam Said’s life - they appear in his sculptures as well as his paintings.  This is probably not quite so true of British youngsters today but Husam’s exhibition illustrates so many truths about the importance of play and outdoor space in the lives of children and young people.  A big thank you to Husam for illustrating  both his childhood and what we in the UK need to provide to our youngsters.

Please contact Terroir if you would like more information on Husam Said’s work.