James Simpson drops in on a group of travellers who are doing their best to better their image in the community

Dirty caravans, stray dogs, piles of rubbish, fighting, gambling, thieving. There's no doubt travelling folk get a bad press. However, there's a group of women in Oxford fighting to change all that and educate people about the positive things travellers can bring to local communities.

A young traveller with the set of postcards produced by the Redbridge Travellers Women's Support GroupThe Redbridge Travellers Women's Support Group, based at the permanent travellers' site at Redbridge Hollow, Old Abingdon Road, Oxford has produced a set of postcards depicting various aspects of the travelling lifestyle.

The idea dates back to 1992. One of the groups leaders, Mrs Kit Gaffey, had just come back from London where she had been involved in publishing a book, Moving Stories that set out in pictures and words a series of travellers' tales.

She said: "I lived in London for a while where I first saw groups like ours. I realised that if we had a similar group here we could achieve a lot."

The success of Moving Stories inspired the women in Oxford to produce a calendar called Moving Pictures which was published six years ago depicting a year in the life of travellers in Oxfordshire.

Since the calendar's success, the women had always planned to produce postcards so that people can send messages across the world which present a snapshot of their lives and culture.

There are six postcards altogether that can be bought in a pack, together with an information leaflet.

Funding for the postcards has come from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Oxfordshire Community Foundation and Oxford City Council.

But all the work in getting them produced has been undertaken by the women themselves. Only two pictures have been taken professionally, by photographer Philip Wolmuth. The rest have been created by the members of the group.

Kit and her sister, Mrs Helen Collins, learned how to use the computer, including photoshop to prepare images for printing, and then the group designed the cards and wrote a leaflet about the significance of each image.

The women meet every Wednesday with Mrs Diana Senior, an outreach worker from Oxfordshire County Council's community education department, who has been helping the group for a number of years now.

"It's important that travelling people are allowed to get involved in projects like this that they would otherwise have no access to," says Diana.

"The women have put a lot of work into this project and it has been very educational as well as practical."

The support group was established 11 years ago under the Government's Access Scheme, designed to provide opportunities for sections of the community that might otherwise miss out.

Since then the women have been to lectures, conferences and meetings with many schools, community groups and voluntary organisations aiming to improve people's perception of them, as well as educate themselves and their children.

Kit says: "We go into schools around Oxfordshire and give talks on our culture and way of life. It can be hard to change an adult's negative perception of us but with a child it is easier to show them we are not all bad.

"We have brought groups of kids down to the site so they can see for themselves how we live.

"If we can meet them and put across ourselves in a positive way they can make their own minds up and reach their own conclusions."

Hopefully the gallery cards will bring an attitude of fair-mindedness towards travellers rather than the usual stubborn negative image.

After all, nothing in life is black and white.

**The postcards and accompanying leaflet can be obtained from The Redbridge Traveller Women's Support Group, EASOCEC, East Oxford Education Complex, Union Street, Oxford, OX4 1JP. a pack of six costs £3.50 including postage and packing. Please make cheques payable to EASOCEC. For more information you can ring Diana or Kit on 01865 727148.