RaW

When members of the Grangetown Young Readers group began writing to a group of students in Romania, few of them could imagine that it would lead to them making a unique cultural exchange and staging their very own exhibition of artwork.

The Romanian group's drawings

However, that is exactly what they have achieved, and it is all thanks to reading and writing.

Cathy Fawcett, the UK co-ordinator of the exchange, explains how it all began: “Well it started off as the children wanted to e-mail different students across the world, so they e-mailed kids in Chile, Romania, France and Brazil.

“A teacher in Romania replied saying he wanted the children to send them pictures of famous people from Great Britain and details on the Battle of Britain.

“We sent them over, and each of the children wrote about a different town, as a thank you to us he wanted to send through the artwork, and the exchange just carried on from there.”

Magda Stroe, Commercial Manager from the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, says the scheme has greatly benefited both countries.

“We worked in partnership with Grangetown library and the high school in Romania, and they asked for our help to bring the artwork over to London and then Grangetown - it’s amazing and I'm really glad that it has finally happened.”

Abigail, one of the Grangetown Young Readers Group group, says it has been a fun project. She said, "My sister told me about it, so I came along and it's been really good because I've made friends in Romania."

Cathy says that the exchange won't stop with Romania.

“The group have been in touch with children in India and they have told them about Pancake Day, as they hadn't heard of it before, so we're hoping that more countries will take part in the future as well”.

You can listen to the full interview with Cathy, Magda and Abigail and find out more about BBC RaW in the 'see also' section.