Hello and welcome to the Get Your Globe at podcast. This is episode 19 with Ash Perrin.

Ash is the founder of the Flying Seagull Project, a troop of entertainers and musicians who for over a decade have travelled to 23 countries touching the lives of 115,000 children in orphanages,

refugee camps and hospitals.

Ash is passionate about how screen time has become playtime rather than entertainment,

and at a time we have never been more connected with the world, yet never have loneliness and social anxiety been so

prevalent in our lives. In today's episodes, we talk through All Things Play, how play can

truly make the world a happier place. Ash gives us some tips on awesome games. He also talks

through all his amazing experiences that play has done to transform

so many kids' lives. It really got me excited about the prospect of playing more, the importance

of it for our health, and also the importance of it for our child's development. For everything we chat

about today, you can find all the details in the show notes,

which are at madelindshore.com forward slash episode 19. Right, let's bring on the amazing Ash.

Welcome Ash to the podcast. Thanks very much. I'm so excited to be talking to you today. I've been

watching your videos, seeing all the amazing things you do with the Flying Seagull project. It's pretty outstanding. How did it all begin? Like, where did it spring from?

It kind of just came from a simple idea. We never really meant to start a charity or even be here. I worked as a clown already. And then I was in Cambodia and I was doing the things

you do in Cambodia. Very cliche, 21 or 22 years old. You know, you go to an orphanage. You go to really serious things that you do a tourist trail. And I was in the orphanage and I've always taken bits of magic when you travel. So, you know, especially when you're in a country that struggles and you've got kids who are begging, I want to interact with them.

I don't want to say no, but giving money means they remain in the street. So I took magic tricks and things. And I was doing that in this orphanage and then playing a bit of pretty average guitar and just the impact, especially on the boys, you know, the boys just gathered. I just came and like lent on me and listened.

And I'm really not much of a guitarist, so it's not the music. It was the interaction. And then when I left, I was in the cab with my sister. And I was just thinking, like, what was all this about? Like, what is it about that orphanage that got in my head a bit? And it was, in three days, not one kid cried. and they're from like one to 15, 28, 30 of them, didn't cry it.

And I thought, why wouldn't you, 28, 30 of them, didn't cry.

And I thought, why wouldn't you, like kids cry all the time? And then it's because it's no one's job to love them. It's no one's job to care for them. It's someone's job to feed him. It's someone's job to make the bed and to put them on the bus to school. But whose job is it to like tell them it's okay or when they've had a nightmare give them a hug or if they want to be an astronaut to say you could be

and it really hit me because I had such a loving childhood my parents were really you know I had a lot of problems you know I was deaf and things when I was born and so like having come from such a rich emotional offering to then we all know the word orphan but when you actually think about what that is, you don't

have a family member. Now, so I started weeping. I was in my sister and I started weeping, thought, I've got to do something, you know, like how they feel has got to be just as important. So, yeah, I wrote it all out on a survey in a hostel, flew home the next day, bought a van, trick the mate, Matt, I said,

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