A STORYTELLER posts snaps on social media of a crochet bunny’s adventures to help raise money for refugees and asylum seekers in Oxford.

Anne- Marie Dupré, 60 lives near Florence park in Oxford and she uses a handmade crochet bunny to help her fundraise for the charities Asylum Welcome and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Ms Dupré posts photos of the French crochet bunny, Lapinette on social media on her Instagram page lockdown_lapinette to raise awareness of her efforts to fundraise for refugee charities.

She said: “I have been doing crochet for a while, I made a bunny for my niece and then I made another one to make clothes that fit.

“Then at the beginning of lockdown I found some nice photos and decided that would be a nice thing to post on Instagram.

“I built up on that and my little stories became more and more elaborate.”

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She added: “It was taking more and more time and effort, but people were urging me to continue and it cheered people up and I had so many likes.

“Then I thought, since I am putting so much effort into it, it would be good to do something with it.”

Ms Dupré worked for Oxfam for 14 years and believes refugees are often forgotten about at times of crisis, even though they are one of the most vulnerable groups. So, she decided to use the bunny, Lapinette to fundraise for refugee charities.

She said: “People were raising funds mainly locally or for the NHS and refuges basically always come to the bottom of the list especially in times of crisis.

“So, to do something different I started raising money for refugees and UNHCR had an appeal, so I raised money for that.

“Plus there was the 2.6 challenge, so I thought on top of raising money for refugees around the world it would be good to support a local charity struggling so I chose Asylum Welcome, the charity based in Oxford supporting refugees.”

Ms Dupré posts snaps of the bunny once a week to her Instagram page and she has now added a link to her Just Giving page ‘The Lockdown Diaries of Lapinette’.

Originally setting her target at £2000 Ms Dupré has managed to raise £640 from her Just Giving page and from her 2.6 challenge, however, she would like to raise more money.

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In lockdown the crochet bunny was only able to go on adventures close to home.

Storyteller Ms Dupré had to be inventive with her photos. She took snaps of the bunny in garden, in the park and in her house doing different activities.

One picture shows the bunny raising money for refugees and others show it painting and enjoying picnics and even boat rides.

The bunny also got involved with the lockdown baking hype and is pictured cooking and calling for people to help the refugees.

However, since the end of lockdown Lapinette the bunny has travelled to the seaside and taken some fantastic holiday snaps which will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Follow Lapinette on Instagram at lockdown_lapinette and help Ms Dupré support refugees by donating at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/am-dupre