A Final Day's Work

by Kelly Flynn and Penelope Spencer

Over another fabulous breakfast at Maggie’s Superb Homestay, we looked forward to our final day of NAS workshops. As we were working with older children today, who had a good command of the English language, we decided to focus on a short writing task, the aim being to empower these young minds to become leaders and vehicles for positive change in their own families, schools, communities, societies and the world. We began by asking them to list adjectives and characteristics they associated with good leadership, many students produced excellent and extensive lists in the strictly timed two-minute task. Following this activity, I prompted and probed the students to contribute to a discussion on why we needed leaders to have such qualities and characteristics. I used such prompts as what is it that we expect from them? What are the important tasks they have and the roles we need them to fulfill?  Some of the responses included that they would like leaders to end tribalism, corruption, discrimination, child marriage, sex trafficking of young girls, gender inequality and improve rights to education. Following this inspirational and considered discussion, each student was given time to write their list of adjectives and qualities, as well as a short passage about a problem or issue in society they felt passionate about, and, as a young empowered leader, would like to change.
Reading and grading these detailed and thoughtful responses, I recognized that there were indeed many strong, courageous young minds attending SUD Academy, who were well aware of, and felt passionate about global and social injustices. I commended them on their excellent work and took some time to draw their attention to their own positive qualities and their power within before we parted for a lunch break. Following this, Pennie got everyone out on the field and up and moving around playing some more of the excellent drama games she had delivered during the previous days and workshops. Pennie selected several of the written pieces and having prepared the students to deliver a short scene/drama performance well, by delivering her trust, mime, concentration, listening and voice projection exercises, each group acted out / mimed their allocated scenarios while the audience was faced with the task of observing and afterward narrating their interpretation of the social issue in each scene.
At the end of the day, we both reflected on the extraordinary accomplishments of the day and knew that we were both blessed to have had the opportunity to share our talents and expertise with this dynamic group of students.

Drama Works at JEHO

By Kelly Flynn and Penelope Spencer



Having arrived safely in Nairobi following our wonderful Kilifi experience, we awoke to a fabulous breakfast after some much-needed rest at Maggie’s Superb Homestay (Maggie Holidays). We set off to shop for some food, snacks, and donations that we would bring with us to JEHO orphanage, where we would deliver our fourth NAS workshop for July 2019 Reach the Unreachable program. On arrival at the orphanage, we were greeted warmly at the door by Pastor Miriam and were told that the children were expecting us and had been eagerly and excitedly awaiting our arrival. This was clearly apparent as we entered the assembly room and received a rapturous welcome.



We began the workshop with the ‘adjectives name game’ which was a lovely way to become acquainted with the children and the nature of their character. As this was going to be a shorter workshop, drama rather than language would be the main focus today, and so Pennie took the lead with a number of wonderful activities, thoroughly enjoyed by the children.


The overall aim of the afternoon was to build an understanding of the dynamics of the stage and we wanted the children to create a small production in small groups for performance. To prepare them for this, Pennie worked through a number of exercises to build trust, focus, and concentration. These were made fun and competitive by pitting the children against each other in small groups to ensure their full participation and engagement.


A seriousness and laughter exercise helped the children focus on the importance of being and staying in character despite distractions from the environment or others. The room roared with laughter as half the children tried their best to make their partners laugh, while their partners were faced with the task of remaining serious. This moved into another activity which focussed on reactions to different scenarios: walking in the road and being confronted by a snake, walking in the park when suddenly it begins to rain and finding a million dollars in the middle of a busy street were among some of the scenarios Pennie set for the children to practice believability in acting. Next, a voice projection exercise required the children to concentrate on vowels and repeat these in voice levels from one to ten. Pennie and I demonstrated the power of using our voices by acting out a short scene in which Pennie was timid and responded inaudibly to my cues and questions. Afterward, Pennie asked the group what their impression of that voice was before we did it again, this time she used her stage voice and the group noted the definite difference. The children then enjoyed having a go themselves. The aim here was to help them understand the importance of having and using their voices...not only for acting or the stage but in real life. Breathing exercises further assisted with the clarity of voice and pronunciation.

The large group was then divided into six teams. Pennie designated 5 leaders and had them pick children from the group to be on their team. Each team imagined a different scenario for a short performance in which they could put the activities of the day into practice.

After observing the performances and noting the learning the participants applied, we moved towards closing the day with a final activity during which I asked the children to think of role models and people they look up to and admire. Eleanor Roosevelt, Miriam, and our very own NAS founder Naima Thompson were a few of the names that made the list and the group discussed the reasons for their choices. Some of the children then requested that we record their personal messages of thanks, admiration, and gratitude for Naima and send them onto her with their best wishes.

Eleanor Ellen
Local Young Leader with drama students

To close the workshop, the children gave feedback on everything they had learned today. Some of their takeaways were trusting one another, having a voice, qualities of good leadership and the importance of gender equality.

The program proved to be an all-around success and as we shared out the snacks we had brought for the children and said our goodbyes, we felt privileged and full of gratitude as we reflected on another NAS goal accomplished with experiences that benefited all involved.

Tears of Pride and Joy on Day 3

By Kelly Flynn and Penelope Spencer

Filled with excitement, yet also a little nervous; we woke early on the final day of our outreach project with the Kilifi children, who would perform the product of their work with us for their friends and families later in the afternoon. We began the morning by letting the children know how extremely proud we were of them for how hard they had worked, how successful they had been and how much they had achieved over the passing days with us, and previous weeks with Furaha while learning the ‘Necessary Arts’ required to deliver ‘The Jungle Book’ play. This brought us to a group discussion on leadership skills, the importance of believing in and having confidence in themselves and being strong to carry on in the face of adversity. Reinforcing their success, we encouraged the children to recognise that they were already doing all of these things and already demonstrating all of these qualities in meeting, facing and overcoming the challenges set by NAS in language, acting, and drama, since the very beginning of their involvement with the NAS program - as much as four years ago for some of them.

The children spoke of their ambitions, dreams, and hopes for the future, and we reminded them that there is nothing they cannot do, and no reason they should feel held back in life. They shared their thoughts of the occupations they hoped to fulfill in their adult lives, many of them aspiring to one day be doctors or nurses, a dentist, an accountant, an engineer. We had a couple of aspiring pilots and an air hostess, who wants to ‘see the whole world’ on our list too!

After a short break, during which the children discussed and reflected upon the morning affirmations, they were ready, confident, keen and eager to go over their lines for the last time and do the final rehearsal. Later, peeking from behind the curtain of our tailor-made stage, they were excited as they watched friends and family members arrive to see them deliver the product of all their hard work. Before we knew it, 2pm had arrived and it was time for the show to begin. Directing from behind the scenes, Pennie and I looked on through eyes filled with tears and hearts bursting with pride as the children gave a wonderful performance, thoroughly enjoyed by the extremely appreciative audience, who clapped wholeheartedly following each individual scene, and overwhelmingly so at the end of the play.

Feeling accomplished, joyful and full of pride, we all enjoyed a hearty and delicious lunch together. There was such a remarkable, positively charged atmosphere as Furuha, Pennie and I met and chatted with parents, siblings, and families who expressed the deepest gratitude to NAS for choosing to reach out to their Bofa children. They complimented the work and expressed their hopes that it may always continue! They also shared some of the happy stories their children had told of their experiences with NAS in their homes. Many of them were so surprised to see their children ‘act’ as they did, and have such stage presence, as they were often perceived as very shy at home. All too soon it was time for everyone to leave and after the heartfelt goodbyes and many many exchanges of gratitude, Pennie and I hit the road to the airport again. Simultaneously exhausted and elated, we headed for Nairobi hopeful, to have the same successful outcome in the workshops at Jeho Orphanage and Sud Academy over the days to come.

Setting the Stage for Day 2

By Kelly Flynn and Penelope Spencer


Day 2 greeted us with much excitement as the children came in early for their snacks and to get the day started. Having worked on scenes 1 through 3 yesterday, following the language and drama activities, our main task today was to practice and refine scenes 4 through 8. We kicked off the morning teaching the children a dance choreographed by Pennie for the ‘Bare Necessities’ song. This was a really energetic, fun and enjoyable start to the day.

Next, we did a quick recap activity which involved naming all the beloved Jungle Book characters once again, and, as a group, delivering impressions of each character, and a list of adjectives to describe the character. We also did some recap work on the reaction of other characters to particular characters in each scene. The children were notably much more animated and competent with this today, approaching it in a playful yet skillful manner, which demonstrated clear progress and increased confidence following yesterday's work and activities.

During the morning break, Penny treated the children to some Trini delicacies of ‘Tambrand Balls’ (which they weren’t hugely fond of), followed by ‘Kurma’ and Fudge; these were a much bigger hit! Consequently, they were full of energy and life for the mirror activity which followed; the aims of which, were following a leader attentively, moving slowly, maintaining focus and developing concentration and eye contact.



We were now ready to run through scenes 4 - 8. To our pleasant surprise, we got through these scenes a little quicker than scenes 1- 3 the day before, which indicated that following the tightening and refining of the previous scenes yesterday, our young actors were prepared, and now understood our expectations with regards to the slowing down and injection of emotion into the delivery of their lines.



After a fun and successful afternoon, we headed to the beach. This trip to the beach afforded us some time to relax and bond with the children away from the workshops. While running around in play, some of the children collected seaweed and wrote ‘Necessary Arts’ in the sand. This turned the discussion to their experience with NAS over the years and how it has impacted their lives. Some of the boys very proudly announced; ‘We have been here since the very beginning, for four years now’. And do you enjoy it I asked, is it different from the activities you do in school? ‘We love it!’ they exclaimed; ‘It really helps us at school; now we will do better in our exams on adjectives, and we love to meet people from different places in the world, it is fun for us to hear stories about Trini and Ireland and Leprechauns’

Walking back from the beach we purchased some bottles of pop and fried potato from a local street vendor, who was, in fact, one of the student’s mothers. We gathered again in the workshop area under the sun talking and laughing about our experience over the last two days. The love and appreciation the children have for NAS became even more apparent at the end of our long and challenging day when we realized they did not want to go home, but instead ‘hang out’ as they put it, chatting with us and each other about previous fun and successful workshops they had enjoyed and they were keen to know when we would come back and what NAS might have in store for them next.

An Irish and a Trini Reach the Unreachable in Kenya!

by Kelly Flynn and Penelope Spencer


On the night of our arrival at the beautifully remote and relaxing Tulia, we had a quick chat with Furaha regarding the progress made while working with the children on ‘The Jungle Book’ script. It became apparent that although the children knew their lines, there was work to be done on their understanding of language, characters, emotions, and acting. Therefore, bringing the characters to life would be our main focus in the planning of the workshops.

We led the morning session with a simple name game asking the children to think of adjectives which describe their personality; when they shared their names and adjectives with the group, we requested that they ‘act’ to demonstrate the chosen adjective ‘jumping Jefferson’ for example JUMPED, excited Esther acted EXCITED and so on. We developed this further with a second EAL activity, this time the children worked in pairs and introduced their partner to the rest of the group by ‘acting’ and impersonating their partner, taking on mannerisms and characteristics of one another’s personalities. The third language game focused on the area in which the children live. Penny and I told the children mythical legends and stories of Leprechauns in Ireland and the Soucouyant in Trinidad, and in response, they told us a story of a beloved Kilifi magician and his amazing tricks, as well as other tales of their likes and dislikes regarding Kilifi. These activities and the sharing of cultural stories helped to build the children’s language skills and understanding of adjectives, emotions and descriptive narratives.

Following a short break of light refreshments, we were then ready to look at the Jungle Book script. While the children delivered their lines with clarity and articulation they were somewhat inanimate. We reflected on the morning activities and asked the children to think of adjectives to describe the jungle book characters; as they had described themselves and their partners earlier in the morning…. What kind of an animal is Shere-Khan? we asked, is he kind, friendly…? The children responded with ‘fierce’ frightening’ ‘intimidating’, ‘scary’, ‘cruel’, ‘angry’. We went through each of the characters in this way and the children applied the adjectives and descriptive narratives from the morning session to our discussion of the characters in The Jungle Book. In this way; we worked towards bringing the lines to life and injecting them with emotion, character, and personification. Showing the children some clips of scenes from The Jungle Book movie really helped with this character analysis and understanding. We worked through the first three scenes successfully. The resilience, enthusiasm, and speed with which the children learned and modified their delivery was an impressive joy to behold!

In the afternoon, Penny then moved towards closing the day with a focus on the importance of ‘reacting’ in acting and ‘stage presence’ explaining that this is demonstrated not only via individual roles but the reactions of everyone else in a particular scene to the presence of each of the characters. The children who played the monkeys practiced cowering with fear in response to Shere-Khan’s presence and responding in a happy, relaxed manner to Baloo’s cool and playful laid-back nature. Exercises on focus and trust demonstrated how actors must rely on, interact and collaborate with each other and avoid distractions from the audience and the surrounding environment to deliver the play successfully. These exercises were thoroughly enjoyed by the children and turned into a competitive and playful sport. As they lead one another blindly around the field, the children laughed with enjoyment while they built trust in us and each other.

Sometime in the day was devoted to learning the stage positions for flow and ease of direction, center, down-stage, stage-left and so on. The children enjoyed the challenge of being asked to position themselves in the correct place after learning the terms and again, they impressed us with the ease and speed at which they gathered this new information.
  Pennie’s passionate and energetic delivery style while teaching stage-craft; a variety of trust exercises and lessons in “reacting” to each other’s characters ensured that the children really enjoyed the learning process. She made it clear to them that ‘Theatre is Life’ and they could apply what they had earned today to real life and their school setting for example. She also did some work on posture with the children and suggested they be mindful of how they carry themselves and how people look at and perceive them. They were encouraged to be confident and have a voice.
During the debriefing activity, each child shared something new they had learned; the list was long and featured things like adjectives, how to trust, myths about Ireland and Trinidad, stage positions, how to display emotions, the need to act, and voice projection... to name but a few.

Overall, day one was a huge SUCCESS and we really did achieve a lot! The children have come on leaps and bounds and are without a doubt enthusiastic, encourageable, responsive and a joy to work with!

A Trini "Las-Lap" in Kenya

"Las-Lap" at the Tulia Mas-Camp

by Allyson Holder and Ray Mahabir


The sun greeted and kissed us on the final day of our mas-camp in Kilifi and we are filled with gratitude and the excitementThe day started with the decorating of drums using recycled materials with the early arrivals.
The young people used the art of paper-mâché to start the decorations. When the full complement was present we shifted gears and concentrated on the script, the area under the trees was cleared and set up as a theatre, one of the actors took a stick and marked an X In the mud to define the center of the stage. We then ran the play in three separate sections (Scene 1-3, Scene 4-6 and Scene 7-8) for evaluation on performance. The learning exercise was to emphasize staying in character throughout the performance.



 With the sun beaming down with a high of 34 degrees, we stopped for a short refreshment break.  We opened the next session with a talk by Ray on recycling and the impact of plastics on the environment. Ray brought out all the plastics that we had used over the last 3 days, plastic bottles, biscuit and sweet wrappers, and milk cartons and demonstrated how they could be used in the costumes. Ray wanted to ensure that certain parts of their costumes were finished by the end of the day and that the group would have enough methods and techniques to use in their costumes in the future.

At this point, the area was set up in the way that a traditional Trinidad mas-camp works, where everyone chips in and assists in different parts of costume making. The group moved between different tables and tasks which included, upcycled tee shirts to be used as ties, painting of drums, cutting neck pieces, making flowers with the biscuit wrappers, cleaning, and cutting of milk cartons for painting. All of this happened as the group sang various songs.

The next process was the set up of the decorating tables where the masks and music shakers were given their final touches. Ray explained that the final stage of their costume design would be the headdress and other accessories and this would be done under the guidance of Furaha during their weekly drama sessions.

In song and dance, the children formed a procession around the table that took us to a delicious lunch feast of Kenyan pilau, salad, juices and fruit that was prepared by Answari and his team.


To record our time in Kilifi we took group photographs and concluded with a summary of the last three days and similar to Trinidad carnival process, all parts for the costumes were put into individual bags. The children, of course, were reluctant to give up their bags for safe keeping.

Our experience in Bofa Kilifi was a great one. The group was lively, interactive and fun to work with. The Kilifi team of Answari, Furaha, Zwadi, Simon, and Kazungu were very supportive and we thank them. It was wonderful to be part of this project and we look forward to continued workshops in the future.

As the sun set on our "las-lap", we waved goodbye to our Uber tuk-tuk carrying our mas-camp tables which brought our four-day workshop to a close

"Mas Camp" in Kilifi

Introduction to Mas Camp

by Allyson Holder and Ray Mahabir

Our start time today was 9AM but the enthusiastic group arrived at 8AM and were ready for the day’s programme.

Building on the concept of environmental carnival arts, Ray had the area arranged in the concept of a mini mas camp. 
Mas is a Trinidadian word that is a shortened version of Masquerade. Mas Camp brings communities together, it’s a melting pot of creative flair in a multitude of artistic crafts: wire bending; headdress building; and costume decoration.

The first activity for the morning was creating music makers out of recycled plastic bottles. This is where the tribal elements were incorporated into the design.

After a short refreshment break, the next session was a run through of Scenes 1-7 of Jungle Book with an audience of our additional volunteers for the day, Zwadi and Answari, again the focus was on the development of the character in terms of using face and body to show emotions, placement on the stage and understanding the presence of an audience.

We emphasized that performing is more than memorizing lines, indeed it is telling a story and to reach the audience the acting, body language, voice, emotions, and costume must work together for a great performance.

After lunch, we played a game which included a song about “mama making chapatis”. They sang in both English and Swahili and had all the corresponding movements.

The group was divided into two. The main actors continued with line reading and character development while the other group began to decorate their masks and music makers. The groups came together and were then all involved in decorating their pieces and stayed longer to ensure that they were finished.

The day was a beautiful creative one which ended with us getting to know each other better and we were delighted to discover that we had many siblings in the group.

We are thankful for another great day in Bofa village. We all are quite pumped and look forward to tomorrow’s continued mas-camp experience activities.

Carnival Art from Trinidad to Kilifi

The Rains were chased away and the Sunshine took over!

The morning began with thunderous skies and a massive downpour of rain at the scheduled arrival of the group. This delayed the start of the programme, Furaha decided to get a Uber tuk-tuk to go and collect the group.

They filed in, drenched but happy to be at Tulia. After drying up and settling in the programme started on a high note with a  welcome from Allyson and an introduction to the programme and Ray Mahabir, our guest artist from Sunshine International Art.




The group of twenty-one consists of sixteen girls five boys ranging in from ages of ten to sixteen. The morning session was led by Ray who covered festivals, celebration, and carnival. He introduced Trinidad Carnival and explained the evolution of the freedom of people. We then went on to look at the tribal composition of the group and realized that the majority of the group were made of the Gintama Tribe and a small number of the Kisutu Tribe. The group had a discussion on celebration and identification of festivals and celebrations from their experience or memory. A selection of celebrations and festivals were identified, birth, the passage of rights and death. In particular, the group mentioned Madaraka Day with much excitement. An explanation of this day was sought by Ray from the group who then explained that this was Kenya Independence Day which was celebrated on the first of June. Ray was very excited by this information as he saw the link to Trinidad Carnival and the celebration of free peoples.  The group explained how they celebrated the day with a song, dance, food and special dress which is the same as Trinidad Carnival.

We had a short break and continued with a performance of Scene 1-3 of the play Jungle Book where the emphasis was being placed on acting and character development. Over the last year, the group has been practicing their parts at their weekly drama workshops with Furaha, so this session honed in on these particular skills.

Before our lunch break, Ray requested a song or dance that would be used for Madaraka Day and we had a full group performance of the Lele Mama song which is done at all celebrations.

The second half of the day had better weather so we moved to under the trees and the group spent time designing their individual characters for the Jungle Book, from this flowed a "show and tell" where each member explained their designs. Ray assisted in the further development of the designs, looking at the color of the costumes for the characters. The next stage was looking at headdress and masks, while David Rudder sang the Ganges meets the Nile in the background to evoke the spirit of Trinidad Carnival.

In preparation of the next stage, the group was given research homework to look at tribal patterns to incorporate in their costumes and to record memories from their elders on traditions and festivals. The day was summarised by the recall of the learning that took place which included celebrations, festivals, facing the audience and always being in character, the day ended with a group performance of Lele Mana.

3 day Arts workshop in Kilifi, Kenya

NAS Volunteers Reach the Unreachable in Bofa Village

Ray and Allyson finally arrived at Tulia, the site donated to NAS five years ago to empower
its community through the Reach the Unreachable program. This is a special place as it has accommodated the outreach program in Kilifi from its inception. The program was initiated by Suzanne Pautler and remains one of our most sustainable and successful efforts. At this site, we have a team of local volunteers who support the operations and logistics in every way possible to make the experience unforgettable and meaningful for all. Local youth leader Furaha runs the NAS Junior Theatre Company every Saturday and it is with these children that Ray from Sunshine International Arts and Allyson Holder a NAS director out of Trinidad and Tobago, intend to introduce environmental carnival art to the children as they prepare for their performance scheduled for July. The NAS team were welcomed by Furaha and time was spent in a planning meeting where they looked at the daily activities over the next (3) days and formulated a detailed plan that would ensure the expected outcomes. The remainder of the day was spent in obtaining provisions for beverages, snack, and lunch, equipment for the workshop area such as tables and chairs and materials to deliver the workshop. It has been a tradition that this workshop ends with a special lunch for the group, to that end, a meeting was held with Answari to discuss the menu. It was a great day of planning and they are looking forward to the start of the workshop tomorrow morning.

Sunshine International Arts visit to JEHO

TT CARNIVAL ART IN KENYA

Necessary Arts is excited to partner with SIA (https://www.sunshineiarts.co.uk/ ) for its 2019 Reach the Unreachable program in Kenya. Finally, Ray Mahabir shares the art form of carnival mask-making from Trinidad and Tobago (via London) with our JEHO family today at Pipeline Nairobi. 


The workshop looked at carnival celebrations and the art of mask making. The children were asked to look at a memory of celebrations that they were part of and the activity was for them to create a mask based on those memories.

The group of children was forty-five (45) in total and ranged from the ages of 1-17 years. The children were divided into juniors and seniors. The junior group was given a mask to decorate while the senior group was asked to use the art of coloring to stimulate their creativity. They were also encouraged to use storytelling to create a  mask which they could share with the group at the end.


The interaction was highly stimulating, engaging and resulted in very interesting mask and stories. The children were encouraged to continue working on this art form and materials were provided for them to revisit this activity in their ongoing drama classes with Eleanor their local youth leader.

This was the initial collaboration between Necessary Arts and Sunshine International Arts and we are looking forward to continuing amazing work.

The Power Within

by Naima Thompson

July 15, 2015. I received news that sent bullets down my spine. My doctor told me that I must cancel my trip to Kenya and instead go for breast cancer treatment right away. The earth ripped apart under me. My heart beat so fast against the table I was leaning on that I had to pull away from it...the table that is. I felt completely betrayed by God.

One year and six months later, I write to you from under a mosquito net with the window open inviting the sounds of a gentle rain on the tin roofs next door. The juxtaposition of the lush green with the rusted corrugated iron, sheltering the impoverished, intrigues me. And still, the gentle drizzle blesses the day.

Today begins our fifth and final day of the continuation of the Reach the Unreachable outreach project for December 2017. Ellie Mutz, her pre-teen sons Zack and Colin, Cecil Mack, Melinda Eversteyn, Theresa Toerien and I bring the idea of POWER OF YOU to our participants.

We began our journey last Thursday as we rushed off to the Dubai airport to catch our flight into Kenya. After a smooth and safe journey, we stayed in Nairobi for the night and left for Kilifi via Mombasa early the next morning. That day that I mentioned above, the day that my doctor told me I could not go to Kenya, would have been Necessary Arts’ first visit to Kilifi. I remember my heartbeat against the table and the only thought in my mind was “NOOOOOOOO. I have to go to Kilifi. Kerry and George have warmly welcomed us to Bofa village. I HAVE to go.” My panic overwhelmed. Suzzi Pautler brought Reach the Unreachable to Bofa for the first time in August 2015 and initiated a beautiful relationship with the youth of that community. A strong foundation and connection were set for a subsequent visit in August 2016 and now our visit in December 2017.

Four days ago, when I entered Bofa Village, Kilifi, I felt like I was home, home as in Tobago. The scene could easily have been Lambeaux Village. The Bofa community gathered at least 75 children to participate in the weekend’s activities. Among many special moments that remain with me so strongly is the moment that I witnessed learning in action, children working with children. Our student volunteer, Zack, led the 10-12-year-olds through improvisation and scene work activities as the warm-up for their performances later on. When they came to the “stage,” the students followed direction so well that you could instantly see their growth and development. Zack was particularly impressed with Teddy who demonstrated a clear understanding of “staying open”. The audience, as instructed, called out “STAY OPEN” in unison each time an actor broke the rule and turned his back to the audience. Teddy, while taking his turn on stage, made the mistake of breaking rule number 2, and when it was called out by the audience, he fixed it and thereafter demonstrated that he understood and could execute the concept. As we sat together later that day, I reminded the team to continuously look for learning, for measurable moments where we can make the connection between our goal and the students’ accomplishments. Zack was impressed with Teddy. I was in awe of Zack.

George and Kerry continue to open the door to their home, Tulia-Bofa, to Necessary Arts and the magic within is incredible. At the end of the 2.5 working days, we asked the children if they would be interested in joining a group once a week to do drama and improvisation work. They are very interested. The plan is for me to work remotely with Furaha, a community leader who works with Moving Goalposts, to facilitate the workshops. Kilifi and our family there are vibrant, talented, and filled with love and kindness for each other.

When I landed in Kenya for the first time four years ago, JEHO welcomed me and Necessary Arts School with open arms. That was the beginning of a strong synergy between NAS and JEHO. After missing flights and such, we arrived safely back in Nairobi to prepare ourselves to work with the children of JEHO the following day. As we drove through the Pipeline slum, one thing immediately stood out. THE ROADS WERE PAVED. No more mud puddles and cautious maneuvering to get to the building. Progress is on the rise, it seems. One might ask me to curb my enthusiasm and realize that Kenya just went through political campaigning. A quick fix to get voters out, maybe? Who knows? It sure was awesome to have paved streets leading to JEHO. The welcome back reception, held in my honor, brought me to tears. The embrace they extended to the team was selfless and genuine. The most consistent and sincere sharing of love I have ever experienced comes from this family of orphaned children, led by their mother Miriam.

Once the celebrations calmed down, we got into the work. Soon enough children and young adults were creating a Christmas tree of paper hands decorated with images and words of POWER. The major question being: What is your POWER? The students participated eagerly and effectively. I am bursting with pride for our student volunteers Zack and Colin. They work with huge open hearts and complete commitment. Zack led his group through the improvisation techniques and they all worked together beautifully. Zack’s leadership, knowledge, and base for theatre arts are exceedingly strong, while his communication style and sensitivities are well synced and executed among the children. The end result is absolutely astounding. This real-world experience for Zack will have a ripple effect for years to come - both on Zack and on those he touched.

The JEHO family gathered together after the showcase to pray in a circle, as they always do. The command of prayer and blessings by Elanor a youth leader was so powerful. After many hugs and a lot of tears, we gathered ourselves and our belongings and headed on our way. The debrief of the day at mealtime was very much needed and welcomed by all of us volunteers. It is such an emotional ride visiting JEHO that everyone needs to share a bit of his/her feelings in a supportive and safe arena. We each shared three words that sum up how we feel. The responses include super kind, emotionally overwhelming, amazing, gratitude, pride. I spoke of pride. I am so proud of the synergy taking place with all of the participants of Reach the Unreachable – students and leaders alike. When I witness Colin and Zack in action, I am inspired and hopeful for our next generation's contributions to humanity. The involvement of student volunteers is the next natural step for our outreach work. In Dubai, there is already a NAS company of young artists involved in humanity. Zack and Colin have both set this in motion and I look forward to the evolvement of future student volunteers. After a much-needed debriefing, we returned to our hotel and settled in for the night.

Day 5 takes us to Sud Academy. Three years ago, I sat in Harlem, NY at my sister-friend, Donna Dove’s, flat. As we spoke about the work of Necessary Arts, the conversation led us to Ger Duany, the South Sudanese Ambassador to the UNHCR. The next thing I knew, there he was, in her flat, in the flesh, sitting with us listening to the works and ambitions of Necessary Arts. It was there that the connection to Sud Academy was made. Now on Day 5, I enter the muddy school grounds for the first time since a NAS team of volunteers first visited in August 2015, led by Suzzi Pautler. The students trickled in slowly, and soon enough, Melinda had them creating their names in graffiti while drawing symbols to represent their POWER. We then used those POWER words to develop oral speaking presentations in the drama workshop. I could see light bulbs switching on as the students found their responses to the recurring question: WHAT IS YOUR POWER?

Deng Buoch, the principal, explains to me that this school is funded by a few well-wishers, and by the Grace of God, they are able to do what they can to keep its doors open. We decide to send a student message to Ger Duany to let him know how the school has progressed and how much still needs to be done. They feel very strongly about South Sudanese people helping the school since it is first and foremost established for South Sudanese refugee children and young adults. Due to the ongoing conflict there, many children have lost years of educational opportunities. It is the Sud Academy that welcomes a 20-year old into a grade 8 classroom and attempts to educate him/her based on academic levels and not age. I really want to see Sud Academy thrive, but at least for now, NAS can continue to do its part for the young and not so young learners.

On Day 6, we saw Ellie, Zack, and Colin off on their safari adventure. They completed their work with Reach the Unreachable and were heading out for 5 nights of an amazing experience. Melinda, Theresa and I packed up all our belongings and piled into Maggie’s car for one last trip.

I managed to make arrangements to revisit the Rialla Education Center in Kibera. The significance of this lies in my first ever outreach work in Kenya. Four years ago, when I decided to go to Kenya to initiate this program, my first stop was at this school. At the time, GEMS Foundation had started the construction of the new school facilities and through GEMS, I gained access to work with the Form 4 children there. At the time, the drama classes were held in a galvanized wall and mud floor room. Standing in that spot now brought back so many overwhelming feelings and reminded me of the beginning of this journey for Reach the Unreachable. We were escorted around the new school by one of the students I had worked with back then. It is so clear to me that this new facility is the pride of the community and yet its own community burned and vandalized areas of it during the August 2017 election campaigns. They have managed to repair what they can, but the black hole of burned books sits as a reminder of the realities of living in Kibera.

Our sixth-day journey of Reach the Unreachable December 2017 has come to an end and I am returning to Dubai both completely exhausted and utterly rewarded. A very talented and dedicated team of volunteers brought the POWER OF YOU program to some beautiful and well deserving recipients. Everyone involved gained either a life-changing experience or at least memories to reflect upon in years to come. As for myself, I am so blessed to have my health and strength back, to be on the ground, and to manifest my life’s dreams. I look forward to returning to Kenya to continue the work of the Reach the Unreachable program.

They’ve Grown Up...

By Melinda Eversteyn

Sud Academy has not changed since my last visit. In fact the only noticeable change in the past 2 years is that the same smiling happy students have grown up! It was such a thrill to be reunited with this special group of Sundanese refugees who spent the past 2 days of their school holidays with Necessary Arts. Although a smaller group in comparison to the past 2 sites we have worked, they were just as enthusiastic and ready to learn.

We started off with art activities. I asked the students to draw their principal George and all of the students brought their very own style. Some mirrored my demonstration, but most brought their own style to the drawing. The students at this school do not take art so today was a novelty. It was evident by the academic work which still remained on the blackboard that a fairly high level of English being taught here, which both surprised and impressed me. After the portraits of George were complete, we did continuous line drawings and the students were happy to take a risk. The results were fantastic. The final art project involved students writing their name in graffiti styled text and they filled in the letters with colors using a variety of donated materials. They then filled the remainder of the page with words and illustrations of their own power, keeping in the theme of "The Power of You!" We exhibited all the work on the board. This lead well into the drama activities with Naima and Zack taking lead. A little shy at first, the students soon picked up on the different drama activities and enjoyed the afternoon. It was really exciting to hear about their dreams: to be a journalist, a DJ, a football player, to run a marathon…

When the sun returned after a night of rain, we were able to go outside and play a variety of games in the same space where we held our very first workshop. The sunshine also brought more participants. I was so excited to see Aleu, who presented me with his personal sketchbook from home. The illustrations are beautiful and depict his family and animals. After I looked at his book, we spent time discussing different drawing techniques that he can use to advance his work. He then drew a man and a giraffe. I asked him to use the art materials we donated to Sud to run art classes with the students at the academy and to share his talents with others.

We finished the session by taking group photos that mirrored the ones we took back in August 2015 and compared them. The boys at Sud Academy towered over me then and they tower over me still!

Returning to Love

The Power of You – The Power of Jeho – The Power of Necessary Arts

by Melinda Eversteyn

As we drove down the busy streets of the Pipeline district I was excited with much anticipation to return to Jeho and to see the smiling faces of the kids that brought so much love last time I was here in August 2017. But nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming reception the children of the Jeho orphanage has prepared. As we entered their space there was a large banner, cheers, hugging and plenty of tears of joy. Necessary Arts has ‘come home’ to this special place. After welcome backs and introductions, it was time to get to work. Naima took half the older students up to the rooftop for drama, Zach has the middle age group, and I took the remaining older kids as well as the youngest.

Similar to what we did it Kilifi and maintaining the theme of ‘The Power of You’ I asked the children to trace around their hands, write their name, and then fill the remaining space to depict their power and what is important to you. Reoccurring themes included sport, singing/music, religion, love and the mother of the orphanage Mariam who they refer to as Mum. Once completed things got very glittery! The students used wet glue to outline their hand, poured over glitter, shook off the excess and then cut it out. All the hands were placed on the wall to form a Christmas tree. The adults got right into it too! After a snack break, the groups rotated so all children were able to do their hands. Once complete the little ones continued to draw and use the glitter as much as possible. The older ones then used yarn to created pompoms. The kids picked this up really quickly and when complete I taught a small group how to juggle. Others used the pompoms as a hacky sack, where Cecil showed his pro moves to the delight of everyone. The little kids raced around throwing them. It was chaotic but controlled and I have never seen so much glitter in everyone’s hair!

To wrap things up it was performance time. The older kids up first performing, followed by Zach’s improv group. All groups were fantastic, the children loved getting up on the stage and the audience enjoyed the show. Saying goodbye when doing work like this is never easy and today was no exception, in fact, it was the hardest in all my time volunteering as part of the outreach program. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room as we said our goodbyes and had a group prayer. The kids at Jeho are so special. Their love for each other as a big family and their openness to work with Necessary Arts and welcome us as part of their family is so unique. They make us feel like we are home when we are there with them. They are proof that the love of family and friends is much more important than wealth and privilege. I hope they recognize how much POWER they have and that life brings them opportunities to express this.

Future Artists in Training

By Melinda Eversteyn

Day 3 in Kilifi was yet another exciting and action packed day filled with rehearsals, arts and craft and performance. The visual arts group took their drawings from yesterday, mounted them onto recycled cardboard and hung them on stick formations that were being prepared for a beach installation. With only 15 minutes to spare they each created a number of pom-poms and added these, giving the final sculptures more color and flow in the wind. In the end every participant was able to trace around their hand and add personal detail through decorations and these would set the frame for the beach stage. The older group of students spent the morning with Naima, brainstorming ideas for their dance and putting together the choreography. 

By midday we all went down to the beach. The installation was set up, the words ‘Power Of You’ written in the sand in the style the kids practiced the day before. Everyone got on board and filled the outlines with seaweed. Once the performers arrived the remaining kids served as the audience and it was show time. First up was the girls who performed their dance to a contemporary then traditional Kenyan song. This was followed by the boys who performed acrobatics. Our very own Zach and Colin joined them which for me was great to see. After the showcase we returned to Tulia House for a well-deserved lunch that Answari had kindly cooked up. The kids all received a gift as they left, an art kit with paper. As I walked to the beach that afternoon for a late swim and went past some of the kids, they were all drawing and painting! The past 2 days they have ran up and joined me on the road, but not today. This made we smile and I am so glad they can continue to use some of the skills learnt over the past 3 days; I did not realise that would happen straight after the work shop. This is my third Outreach experience through Necessary Arts, my second time in Kenya, however my first time to Kilifi, and this has been a fabulous and unforgettable experience. The kids have challenged me, got me to think on my feet, and overall impressed me with their ideas and meaning generated through their artworks. There are defiantly future designers in this group and my hope is life  will provide them with more opportunities like this where they can follow their passions and showcase their talents in the creative arts.

Power of self-choice

by Cecil Mack

It’s been two days here in Kilifi and I feel we are getting closer to understanding how necessary the arts are to this community. With the fine arts, Mel led the students to first identify themselves with hand drawings, customized to their own colors, shapes, and patterns. As they had exposure to the materials, they began blending colors and layering between the different creative tasks.  Even as the afternoon sun wore down some of the energy we would find shade and still keep going strong.

In the dramatic games with the little ones, we did ELL games first spelling the “Power of You” before playing “red light / green light” where we discussed the power of self-choice. As the most successful runners were those that could stop and start instantly, we talked about seeing a chance for good to be green and move forward, or a danger to stop with red. The students identified moments to stop like snakes and traffic lights, then shared times to go green to help others, with carrying something heavy or helping up a friend who has fallen. We challenged them to make good/green choices in their community.

With the older kids, there were drama games but it was the most genuine when the music that they love was driving the development of percussion, song, and dance. We already have a plan in place for tomorrow on the beach, art pieces are drying in the sun, the big picnic lunch menu has been set and the kids have a taste for performance while ready for more.

We are all looking forward to a great day 3 here in the beautiful beachside Kilifi. There are just as many smiles which are one way we measure a great day of learning and having fun with Necessary Arts. Every child has a chance to learn and show what they have to bring. The team has been working hard and will be well fed by Answari our host and guide at Tulia, Bofa. More pictures and video to come as WiFi becomes available.  


Cecil Mack
Media Historian
Necessary Arts