Peacemakers take to the streets of London (18 Jun 2007)

Pupils at Yorkshire Martyrs Catholic College, Bradford, formed a group called this summer to discuss and act on issues such as homelessness, fairtrade and livesimply.

One of the first actions for the new group - named We are the Peacemakers - was to travel to London - along with two teachers and 10,000 other people - to tell the G8 leaders that "The World Can't Wait" for an end to injustice.

Two of their group take up the story.

"We arrived at school at 6.20am for an early start at 6.30. On the coach we were given banners to use.
  
"When we got to London we wrote our messages on the banners.

"We saw some of the sights of London and got some Christian Aid banners to use for the protest by the River Thames. Most of us wore something white and we had phone alarm clocks ready for raising our voices to get a message across by making as much noise as possible.
  
"Coming home it made us think we still need to make noise for those unheard voices in order to build a better fairer world."

Billy Norton, Year 7

"When we arrived in London we walked to the Emmanuel Centre where we wrote a message for poverty on the CAFOD wall. We met with other people and we were filmed giving our message about putting others first. Afterwards we went to Archbishops Park and chilled out for lunch in a cool spot. We walked around and seen the different stalls and got banners to use.

"When we got to the River Thames at 2pm it was really hot and noisy and many people turned up to shout out their messages to make G8 leaders listen.

"I really enjoyed the day and returned back to school hoping we helped to make a difference."

Samantha Reynolds, Year 7

> Read more about the demo on the CAFOD website