Help a Friend - Uganda

By Teddy Nabagonzi

On the 1st of July I got to visit Muzaana Street Children and Sport Development Association in Kisenyi Mengo, Kampala, Uganda. With the theme “Help a Friend” I, with the help of Kasule Douglas introduced these children to new ways of empowering themselves through the dramatic arts.  It’s amazing how they were able to come up with skits depicting what friendship means to them. This is what Necessary Arts is all about: Stimulating Minds Through Artistic Expression.  I together with Ms Naima Thompson and the rest of the NAS Reach the Unreachable team look forward to coming back to Uganda for more outreach programmes. Check out our video clip on the link below for a small peek at what we did.

Help a Friend: Uganda

Language Barriers

By Naima Thompson

One of my biggest anxieties in preparing for this trip to Gaziantep was the language barrier. On my last visit Theresa and I stayed in a local hotel and struggled with communication since no one spoke English. We decided to check out an American hotel and soon realized no one spoke English there either and that google translate would become our closest ally. Although our day to day experiences were struggles concerning the Turkish language, I knew working with the children would be about Arabic, since they are, after all, from Syria. Whether Turkish or Arabic, we were going to face a language barrier either way..

Luckily for us, we had some volunteers who would translate Arabic/English for us. I must admit that even though we had the translators, the issues surrounding class management were beyond language barriers. I found myself standing in awe and in silence looking keenly at the behaviour of the children and couldn’t help but wonder if their back stories influenced their current aggression with each other. There could be some truth in that assumption but I also quickly confirmed that children operate based on the boundaries set for them. Once I set mine, they were able to follow through with the expectations. They do have back stories, like all of us, and are governed by their abilities to cope with their situations but, in the end, they all want guidance and boundaries and expectations set for them.

The children love when we arrive each day. Their cheers and excitement are the indicators of a happiness that we bring to their lives. The activities ranging from English Language to Drama and to Arts and Crafts stimulates their creativity and keeps them wanting more each day. The activity of the friendship bracelet really stands out as a tangible example of tapping into a consciousness of self-worth and value. The light in their eyes as the completed bracelet is fastened to their wrist is indescribable and immeasurable. No amount of language barriers could alter that priceless reaction. The process requires individual tenacity as well as support and help from a friend. I believe our theme rang through this week in many many ways and particularly in this friendship bracelet activity. And so the question after week one is: is the impact we are having on these children’s experience affected by the challenge of communication?

Our Hotel: Ali Bey Konagi

Our Taxi Driver

That question has a loaded answer which involves more than our team and the kids we are trying to help. So many entities within the Gaziantep community are part of this success story. We have received generous discounts and contributions from our hotel, restaurants, taxi drivers, art suppliers and even a local journalist. These offerings have motivated and fueled our energy everyday and the kindness is transferred effortlessly to our beneficiaries. We are truly a community of great people living the experience set out by Necessary Arts to “Help a Friend”. The desire we share to help those in need transcends any language barrier we might face.

Pastel colors from Umit Kaya

Imam Cagdas Restaurant

Help a Friend in Action

By Natasha Vrutska


After a hectic but exciting morning spent shopping for school supplies at the stationery store and at the Gaziantep answer to Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, we found ourselves back at the New World Academy, ready for Day 2. I walked into my classroom to find a bunch of girls seated at their desks, their arms folded, looking at me expectantly. A loud "Good morning!" resounded before I had a chance to say anything. "Good afternoon", I corrected, "Ready to study?" "Yes, we are!" You could have knocked me over with a feather. They were almost jumping out of their seats with excitement, and my heart leaped. I had another surprise coming though. One girl got out of her seat, ran up to me and handed me a cookie, "For you, teacher!" Do I  have to say, my heart just melted? This was going to be a good day.

We had made a decision to only offer English and drama to the older kids and to separate girls and boys. This meant that I was starting my first session with about ten lovely young ladies. We played a quick game to review the animal names, and they blew me away by how much they remembered and how actively they all engaged from the get-go. We then turned our attention to adjectives, specifically, describing people and our feelings, and soon the girls were laughing at illustrations of "hungry", "boring", and "angry". By now I knew they could handle more, so we had a larger set of flashcards and, after a short introductory activity, stepped up our game and switched to writing. The girls helped me spell the words out as I wrote them on the board. We handed a notebook and a pencil to each of them, and soon a game of Bingo was underway. Aya helped explain that they needed to choose five words to copy from the board and then check them off as I randomly read them aloud and wait to shout Bingo as soon as they had checked off all five. After a few rounds, I called on some of them to come up to the board and be the reader instead of me which they took on with great enthusiasm, refusing my help and stretching up on tiptoes to reach the words at the top of the board. The girls were having fun, and all I had to do was correct some pronunciation.

Something strange was happening though as Theresa, who came in to take some pictures, drew my attention to the fact that the girls were ripping pages out of their notebooks and starting fresh after each round. Try as we might, we couldn't make it clear to them that that was not necessary, and that the notebooks were theirs to keep. Even after they worked on a self word-map, putting their name in the middle of the page and surrounding it with adjectives that described them, they felt no sense of ownership of the notebooks and simply left them on the desks as they filed out of the room on theirway to drama with Naima. This made me sad.

The following hour with the boys ran to a similar plan and just as smoothly. They rolled in, clearly very high energy after the drama workshop, so I knew that they were not going to care for writing as much as girls as they could barely sit still. Instead, I split them up into two teams, calling on Said and Asaad, who quickly showed themselves more than capable as leaders and quite confident English speakers, to come to the front. The two boys, delighted, hammed it up miming the adjectives for their respective teams to guess the words. Aya was busy elsewhere, but never fear, as Said jumped in and explained the activity to the rest. His and Asaad's interpretations of "thirsty", "fun", and "happy" had us all in stitches. Said's team won, and, once the excitement died down, we still had time for a few rounds of Bingo.

As the kids moved on to work on their first art project of tracing their hand and decorating the drawing with pictures and and colors that represent them, I floated between the rooms, watching them and asking them why they chose a flower (because they like them) or a bee (because they are painted on the classroom walls). The day finished with some sweet presentations as the kids got up one by one to "present their hand". They spoke in Arabic; however, their growing confidence came through. Said spoke in English, of course. He hesitated at the end, not sure how to finish. I looked at him and flexed my arm. "And I am strong!", he proudly announced.

We debriefed today over a complimentary dinner at one of Gaziantep's best tourist restaurants, enjoying yummy Turkish food, graciously provided by the owners and arranged by the wonderful Buket. I am touched by how many people here readily go out of their way to help us, be it a journalist putting us in touch with a stationery store owner, the said owner giving us generous discounts and sending one of his sales assistants to help us carry our purchases all over the bazaar and back to the hotel, taxi drivers offering discounts on rides when they hear what we are here for, or restaurant owners offering to feed us.                                                            
A Community EffortIt really does feel like a community effort, and it is wonderful to feel so welcomed. On to Day 3!

Relationship First!

By Buket Ozdel Gurol

When I was watching Naima with the boys who were really having fun in drama class, I recognized a boy in the back of the class watching the kids and Naima. I was trying to figure it out - why he was not in it? After some time I preferred asking one of the teachers why he wasn’t participating and he told me he was working with the repair man who came to fix the air condition. Then I had the thought that no kid should be working at a time when they should only be playing and studying!

While I was witnessing the kids with Natasha in her English class, I noticed how the kids become happy when they know the answer of the questions coming from their teacher. And this took me to some of the classes which I took as an adult and realizing the theme which proves to me how important it is to be right (rather than being happy most of the time).

When I worked with the younger kids, ages 4-6 on their hands for the friendship tree, I realized how important it is for the kids to be seen. When you show your love through your voice, your behaviour, your touch, your show up when they need help, it is so precious. I’ve always believed that being a leader as a teacher makes a difference!

After some time, the theme of our project which is “help a friend’ came to my mind and I’ve found myself questioning myself. Am I helping my friends... my teammates? Do I live the value I believe which is ‘relationship first’ ? Am I aware of my friend’s needs individually or am I asking them? Because I learned very well that if each of the team member gives 100%, then everything just flows easily. Effortless success takes place magically!

Roller Coaster Ride

By Natasha Vrutska

I will remember Day 1 as the Roller-coaster, which  is probably true for the first day of any experience where you enter somebody else's space. We knew there would be surprises, and we were right. I'd like to think we handled them well and hit the road running.

While anxious to go into Day 1 prepared, I also knew from experience that I wouldn't be able to really plan until I knew who I was planning for, so it was important to stay open and be willing to play it by ear. Consequently, the first day for me was all about meeting the kids and getting to know them, their current level of English, and their needs. Before we even started, I got a chance to peek in on an English class that was taking place and meet Aya, an English teacher from Aleppo, and her small group of seven to ten year olds. Smiling shyly, the kids were excited to tell me their names and greet me in English. They let me watch them practice colors in a question and answer routine with their teacher, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they spoke a little English despite what we had been told initially. I was also relieved to find out Aya would be around to help me relay instructions to the students. The task ahead seemed more manageable by the minute.

 

Starting out with all of the kids in one space doing some warm-up drama activities with Naima proved a great way to observe the kids before separating them into smaller groups. You could spot right away who was going to be a leader and a teacher helper and who was going to need more support. The heat of the summer afternoon and a larger group than originally announced aside, the overwhelming feeling in the room was how excited both the kids and the teachers were to have us there.

As I don't have much experience working with primary school children, I chose to start with the younger group for our first break-out session. I wanted to jump in at the deep end and be done with it. Soon, the small classroom dedicated to English filled up with tiny people who were between three and six years old. Prompted by my wonderful helper, Aya, they were able to return my "hello" and tell me they were "fine, thank you". However, things got more challenging from there. The kids were clearly exhausted by the heat, by the excitement of the drama workshop that had just been through, and, simply, by what had to be a very long day for that age as it was 3pm by this time. We tried some simple activities with flashcards depicting animals, and some kids were able to engage in group repeat and recall activities. Both Aya and I tried our best to engage more of them which proved to be an exercise in frustration as more and more of them chose to nap with their heads on the desks or bicker among themselves in Arabic. We let them be and played another flashcard game with the very few still making eye contact with us. If I am honest, I was very happy to hand them back to Naima and to welcome the older group to my class. Feeling discouraged and dispirited, I needed a good experience to finish the day on a better note. The second group gave me just that.

We started with an activity standing in two lines facing each other and exchanging greetings, moving in a circle until everyone had talked to each other. I was happy to hear that the kids were stepping out of the offered script of "hi, how are you" and asking each other names and ages. Clearly, they had had more English instruction than we had been told. More importantly, they were brimming with enthusiasm to learn more. The hour flew by as we played games with the animal flashcards. I doubled the number of words for this group, and they met the challenge. We played multiple rounds of who could collect the most cards being the first to identify the animal, eventually expanding the task to include the color as well. As the kids' competitive streak kicked in, they couldn't get enough of the game.

Another big hit was sending one student out of the room for a few seconds and hiding a flashcard somewhere in the room. They would then have to locate it by listening to the rest giving clues as to its whereabouts by chanting the word progressively louder as the student got closer to the flashcard. After the first few rounds the students understood the game well and used the full range from low whisper to almost shouting. Of course, everyone wanted a go at having to search for a card. The kids were having a blast and I was enjoying their laughter. I have to thank my wonderful friend Maria for the idea for this game and, of course, Aya for helping interpret the instructions.

Wanting to check if they knew the alphabet, I moved on to Hangman, building from single words to collocations, and we finished off by playing a fast game of Hot Potato, using the vocabulary of animals and colors. It was dismissal time, but, although I said good-bye three times, no one wanted to leave. I wish all my classes ended like that.

To recap Day 1, I went through the full gamut of emotions from  the excitement and gratitude of being warmly welcomed into a bright, child-centered school through the frustration of feeling out of my depth and helpless with the little ones to the satisfaction of having things work well and seeing the kids engaged and learning. But, more than anything, I was exhausted and ready for a nice meal and a long debrief with Naima and Theresa.

A New World Experience

by Naima Thompson

We arrived in Gaziantep on Saturday July 1^st with a day and a half before meeting our students. Help a Friend is the theme for this outreach workshop and in that spirit we agreed to meet with Jehad and his team the night before so we can help each other understand more clearly what the next few days would entail.

So on a warm and humid Sunday night under a fig tree, we all sat with servings of chai from a local street restaurant, chatting about the excitement of the program. There was Captain Fawaz who would pick us up at midday to take us over to the center, Jehad and his wife Furat who would not be able to join us but who were instrumental in setting this connection up and the director of the center Ms Ruba. They listened to Natasha, Theresa and I tell them about the possibilities for the workshops and they cleared up some details about the logistics needed for success. Once we exchanged the necessary information we bade them farewell and off they went.

The next morning over three types of cheese, olives, breads, vegetables and a pan fried omelets Natasha expressed her usual dream of missing a flight which was a direct indicator of her anxiety. She was not alone. Once Captain Fawaz dropped us off at New World Academy, Ms Ruba greeted us and we started to explore the various options for spaces for the workshops which would consist of all the children for the first hour and a split between drama and ELL for the last two hours. Like most outreach trips before we are told one number of participants and then we encounter almost double.

As we sat on the racetrack themed carpeted floor waiting for the children to finish lunch, a curious Syed of maybe ten years peeped his head into the room. Upon encouragement he entered and soon enough we realized that we had a student leader whose English was pretty advanced. Very slowly the others trickled in. The first activity took place in a room whose air conditioner abandoned its users. Almost fifty of us worked through several activities with the noise level of 100 decibels. This was the first time since China, almost seven years ago, I was leading a workshop where I did not speak the language and the participants followed translated instructions. Back then I had maybe thirteen high school students. Today was almost 50 primary students ages 3 to 11.

I found the children to be engaging and ready to participate in all the activities. Some activities ran smoother than others and once Natasha and I divided the group for the second hour we had better success.  In drama the older group played boys against girls in a stepping stone competition using A4 paper to walk their team across the room. There was much excitement as they all struggled to keep their feet off the floor and use each other as support so as to not fall. Like most groups of children, the girls were very focused and well-disciplined and the boys were rambunctious and rowdy. Needless to say the girls won!

Natasha will share her teaching experiences with her language learners in a separate post. Theresa did a good job capturing the day’s work on camera so you’ll see her perspective coming through the pictures and videos in all the blog posts.

At the end of the day the boys sat with us, sharing their cheese sticks and laughing at me trying to but failing miserably at getting a wifi connection on my laptop. I must say that I am intrigued by them. I would like to know each of their stories. But for now I’ll settle for knowing that Syed has been at the center for four years and any English he knows was all learned right there at this vibrant New World Academy.  Help a Friend in Action

They Told it Right

By Suzzanne Pautler

Drumming, movement, expression, emotion, and ensemble combined to create a powerful opening act for the Thompson’s Thespians Showcase II, “Tell it Right.”  Student voices shared narratives and statistics to promote child rights including: gender equality, clean water, food, healthcare, education, religious equality, freedom from illegal transfer abroad, racial equality, physical protection, and recreation.  There is great strength and power when child voices promote child rights!

Imagine sitting in a black box theatre, focused on the actors all dressed in black. A teenager speaks on behalf of other teens around the world by stating they “get paid low wages because of their ages.” Another shares with the audience that it’s not fair and we must “stop child labour.”  

In addition to live performance, two small groups had performed previously in front of a green screen. This was altered in post-production by 11th grader Jay Nagjee using advanced technology to superimpose the actors on a variety of backgrounds. The end result is one video short on child trafficking and the other on humanity. A level of wisdom, maturity, and readiness exists amongst these young actors to be able to share such meaningful and weighty messages.

Sixteen young actors, as well as a tech team of three and publicity team of four, collectively shared their talents and resources to share powerful messages of social justice. They organized props, costumes, stage make-up, set changes, sound and light design and operation, video coverage and social media interviews. They memorized lines and created improvisation for short scenes. They supported one another throughout the journey and the evening’s showcase.  

Necessary Arts continually promotes social justice through the arts channelled through the voices of our youth.  One actor reflects that “it’s inspiring to be part of a positive message.”  While another explains, “we get to make a change in the world through our performances.”

When young people have the creativity, innovation, commitment and power to share messages of social justice, and strive to tell it right we must listen!