EASTLEA Community School was picked from hundreds across the country to showcase Amnesty International UK s new education pack, Poverty and Human Rights. While Amnesty is renowned for its work on civil and political rights, this year the human rights or

EASTLEA Community School was picked from hundreds across the country to showcase Amnesty International UK's new education pack, Poverty and Human Rights.

While Amnesty is renowned for its work on civil and political rights, this year the human rights' organisation has launched a new global project on poverty and human rights, called Demand Dignity - and the pack is a key part of that new project.

Year 11 Pupils at Eastlea School worked with the resources for a week and delivered assemblies every day to the whole school. Part of their preparation also involved working with younger students to create art work to support their presentation.

The Poverty and Human Rights resource focuses on the experiences of the Deep Sea Community in Kenya, who live in a shanty-town in Nairobi. The community live in dire conditions that amount to absolute poverty. They are denied basic rights such as clean water, nutritious food, adequate housing, health care and education. They also live under the constant threat of illegal forced evictions and police brutality, a further abuse of human rights.

Students involved in the assembly will be delivering lessons to younger students about the issues raised. Students across the school will be encouraged to sign petitions against forced evictions in Kenya.

Lisa Buddin from Amnesty International said it was "a pleasure to watch" students perform the assembly. "We all really enjoyed visiting your school and thought that everyone did really well."

Pupils gave their views: "Amnesty involved artistic work and the opportunity to forward our knowledge to our fellow pupils. The activity was amazing. It brought out my vivacious side." Anewsca Koabo (age 16)

"A brilliant experience. It really opened my eyes to the world outside of England. The art work bought the story to life and created the right atmosphere." Another pupil (age 16)

"The protect the human week really made me think about my situation and how I am privileged to have things I take for granted and the painting and pictures made it seem more real. I really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot about Amnesty International." Akeema Paul.

Three pupils then joined together to write us a short report on the event. Maria Okpokiri, 15, Amy Nguyen, 15, and Paloma Nicole Manuel Antonio Dias dos Santos, 16. told us...

A group of us launched the protect the human week pack, we met before we did all the art work with Dan Jones and Lisa Buddin. We had to create placards and banners and participated in a role play about the deep sea settlement people.

It was about a young Kenyan boy who lives in the deep sea settlement. Him and his family talked about their everyday struggles and forced evictions and the affects on them.

It also showcased some of their human rights which were being abused. These were illustrated by a group of pictures playing on a slideshow during the role play to show what the deep sea settlement looked like. This was effective because it gave an image of how other people have to live and showed people they should do something too help other people.

The week after the assemblies we set up a stall in the playground to get people to sign a petition to stop forced evictions in Kenya, This was effective because it brought it straight to the pupils. We learnt how other people around the world live and that we can make a difference through little things and how to protect our human rights.