WORDS RACHEL HALLIBURTON
A small revolution is taking place on the banks of the Thames. Its rallying cry reaches from the council estates of West London to some of the UK’s most prestigious educational institutions. Children whose DNA has been stamped by the noise and pollution of the urban environment have been invited out onto the area’s greatest natural resource – the river – and the results have been life-changing. In a world that’s also increasingly constrained, both physically and imaginatively, by social media’s dictates, the simple act of putting down their phones and taking to the water is helping these children both to broaden horizons and defy expectations.
PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT TUFNELL