A Sheppey sculptor hailed the unifying power of art after a project to teach refugee children in Beirut.

Paula Trower was part of a group that travelled to the Lebanese capital in April.

Photographs from their trip went on display at the Sheppey Gateway, High Street, Sheerness, on Saturday, May 25, and will be there for a month.

Accompanying her were Canterbury Christ Church University tutor Ben Kidger, sculpture technician Phil Evans, of the University of the Creative Arts, Canterbury, and part-time art student Marion Fullerton.

They arranged the visit through local contact Hatem Imam who had studied in Canterbury.

Mrs Trower said: “We decided that maybe there was an opening to teach refugee children sculpture.

“It was really about finding out if it would work, if we could take it further.”

After thinking they were going to work with teenagers, they had to change tack when they were given a group of around 20 eight-year-olds on the first day.

They had fled to a nearby camp from conflicts in other regions in the Middle East, including Syria.

The team took the children to Saneyeh Gardens, the former site of a tent city used for refugees.

Using discarded furniture, water bottles, and leaves they made sculptures and pictures which were hung from a long wooden frame.

Mrs Trower, of Hustlings Drive, Kingsborough Manor, Eastchurch, said: “We wanted them to think about what else they could do in their environment and encourage them to do sculpture in the future.

“The artwork tended to be themed on the home environment. Pictures of pretty homes, pretty families. It was all about what they wanted in life.

“In the park, there was very much an area where the older generation stayed and an area where the younger generation stayed and never the two mixed.”

The 50-year-old said the artwork broke down the generational gaps as curious people started to come over and see what was going on.

Before long, strangers were making art and helping with the interpreters between the refugee children and the English visitors.

She added: “We ended up influencing the whole park as well, it changed an awful lot during that time.

“The most poignant thing I found was when we had to take all the artwork down, the locals were so upset.”

They are now seeking funding for a planned return in October.

They were supported by the British Council and an American embassy in the city but food, travel and lodging largely came out of their own pockets.