Aww! This green BENCH is helping lonely children to make friends...

 

Some kids make friends easily. Others however struggle. 

 

But a school in Canada has just hit on a novel idea for helping lonely children at break-time. 

 

Willowgrove School in Saskatoon, Canada have just installed a green bench in the playground where kids can go when they're in need of a friend. 

 

The newly-installed bench means no pupil should have to spend break-time alone. The idea is that if a kid goes and sits on the bench, other pupils should go over and ask them to play or join them.

 

And the good news is that it seems to be working. 

 

Seven-year-old pupil Matthew Henkelman told CBC News that he'd already used the buddy bench and it only took about a minute for other children to come and ask him to take part in their game.

 

 

Asked how to explain how it works, he said it's 'where, if you can't find your best friends and you don't know where to go to play, you sit on the buddy bench and someone will come and find you and they'll include you in their game."

 

One of Matthew's fellow pupils, who has also used the bench, agreed that it really helps you to "find friends easily when you're lonely and you don't have, like, anyone to play with at recess."

 

Another little boy added that "before I seen people walking around by themselves and since we got these I seen a lot more people with friends to play with."

 

The video was shared on CBC Saskatoon's Facebook page, and has so far been viewed a whopping 11 million times.

 

Naturally, there's been plenty of feedback from viewers on the social networking site.

 

"There are times in my life when I could use a buddy bench," wrote on user. "People of all ages are lonely at times. It's a simple, transformative idea."

 

You can watch the heartwarming video below.

 

 

SHARE if you think this is a fantastic idea to help kids connect with others.