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Monday 28 August 2017

Two weeks left - here's how our project has gone so far!


So our project. Were to start. First of all we have so much fun! Especially at Chinamwali drop in centre with the young people there. They are so talented, and they run an awesome drama group. We’ll start the day off with a traditional dance session. Equipped with only a djembe we dance the “cassava” dance and lots of others. There’s nothing quite like Samson’s dance moves…really you have to see it to understand! Currently we have been training and organising these young people in Theatre for Development (TFD) which so far has been a great success. 

We began with a community investigation whereby, with permission from the chief, as a team we went into the community undercover to find out any problems or struggles the community is experiencing. This can be from issues around Sexual Health and Reproduction, to all forms of abuse. We approached the community in a friendly manner and got to know them to find out on a personal level. We also looked at the larger level - the struggles this area is experiencing. 

Recording this data we regrouped and fed back our research: we found that the lack of HIV testing was an issue and the abuse of orphans or young girls were key problems. Therefore we formed a TFD play tackling the issue of young people facing the lack of HIV testing. Our story was about a young girl who has a boyfriend and decides to have unprotected sex and refuses to get HIV tested. Her family disown her but this issue is resolved by the chief gathering the community and with the support of YONECO the family is reunited and the girl is provided with the adequate support. We also did a side play where we UKV’s attempted a few Chichewa lines. 

We also have been focusing on life skills, dance and art sessions. It’s great because we realised the best way for people to learn was for the sessions to be interactive. We organised a meditation session to tackle anxiety, a stress workshop, a non-violent communication session, and also a session on disability ran by Austin and Caitlyn. We have also focused on life skills to enhance learning and job success in the future. 

We accompanied these sessions with an art or dance. Alice and I ran a swing dance lesson at Chinamwali and David and I also ran a salsa lesson which was a great success! David’s salsa hips are a sight to behold! We also ran an art session:  on drawing the UK and Malawian flag, followed by a portrait session and finally clay modelling. The younger kids absolutely love it and even the older ones get involved.  Overall the life skill sessions have been a great success. We have utilised our own personal skills to make progress, since the budget is small we cannot hire professionals. Yet we are so glad of that because it has meant we have been able to share our own skills and learn so much from the youth, especially at Ndola drop in centre. We've been getting to know them personally and forming strong bonds and relationships. The enthusiasm of the young people really carry us through anything.

Other elements of our project include training community facilitators for parenting circles as well as a football and netball tournament to raise awareness of the issues we tackle. With regards to the facilitator training it was really a learning experience. I, Lucius, Alice and Salome did research on topic areas including: Child Rights, Child abuse, child labour and trafficking, hygiene, childbirth, HIV/AIDS in children and the responsibility of children. 

We enjoyed sharing our research and receiving feedback from the facilitators who were so open and willing to learn which made our job all the more easier. Finally the tournament, I would say it is a work in progress but as each match goes on the turnout is improving. Coach, Salome and Miemie are great at improvising, adapting the awareness sessions to suit the age group of the crowd tackling issues such as human rights SRHR and many others. One thing I can say is that we’ve all grown as individuals and learnt so many new skills which we can share with the world.

By Lydia Denton

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