"With my new confidence I can speak loudly and bravely and help others to listen!”

"Each one of us can make a difference. Together we make change."Barbara Mikulski 

by Paula Peters

Our mission to ‘ Reach the Unreachable’ continued today with a visit to the SUD Academy. SUD Academy was established in 2006 to give refugee Sudanese children the key to a brighter future; education. When asked, “how do you keep your students motivated,” school’s principal, George Manyang Buoch, who himself was a ‘Lost Boy of Sudan’ responded, “I remind them that they are lucky and life for them is much better than it was for thousands of boys and girls from Sudan during the civil war. I remind them that even though they may go to bed hungry, they will rise the next day with the hope that things will get better because they live in a safe country with the chance of learning to read, write and communicate.”

Through conversation, we learned that most of the 250 students of SUD Academy live in extended home circles where they are given a sense of safety. Their physical needs are met, even if in the most basic ways. They do have a sense of safety and the school along with relationships with each other, their teachers and their principal help with their sense of belonging.

 

So the question most likely on your mind is, “How does the work of Necessary Arts impact the lives of these students?”. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs state that self- actualization or a person’s motivation to reach his or her full potential is directly connected to one’s self-esteem, confidence, and creativity.  Being exposed to the performing arts help these students build that self-confidence and spontaneity needed for self-actuation.

Today we spent two hours working on creating monologues of pivotal moments in our lives. During a guided session, students were exposed to the power of nonverbal communication and visualizing before starting to write their own scripts focusing on the theme: This is who I am, this is who I want to be and this is what I want to the world to see.   

Just before our time with these amazing youngster was over were able have some students presented their monologues and once again they demonstrated a level of articulation of feeling that we did not expect. Using the simple techniques learning earlier in the day, they confidently expressed the desire to make a difference to their families, their communities and in their own lives because as one young man eloquently stated’ If I don’t make a difference then who will? With my new confidence I can speak loudly and bravely and help others to listen!”