Childhood Now: Hello Beautiful Swaziland!!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Hello Beautiful Swaziland!!

The time is NOW in Swaziland! The time is ripe for a new movement in arts education for the young Swazi child!

The Big Little Caravan of Joy has arrived in Swaziland! Hurray, hurray!! We are now entering day four of our arts program in a rural school, up in the mountains. We are also gearing up for a symposium that will encourage, support and design a sustainable arts based program for the young children of Swaziland- The Empowered African Child!

Everything is put in place:

a great arts curriculum for the early years designed by the curriculum department
a governmental board that appreciates, honours and is designated to support arts and culture in the country
a body of teachers who are in desperate need of creative and inspiring educational resources
hundreds of intelligent and energetic artists that are ready to go
and here’s the kicker- almost 500,000 Swazi bright, creative children who are bursting with potentiality, are urgently needing and requiring empowerment in all areas of their young lives!!

The Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku states:

“It is of paramount importance that children develop, grow and thrive in an enabling, protective and secure environment. The new strategy is to uphold the promotion, protection, and realization of children’s basic rights, and that this notion will be strategically integrated at all levels.”

Here are the hard cold facts as stated in The Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland.

The statistics for the young child in this country are gut-wrenching and unsettling.

1,018,449 is the population of the country.

52% of the population is younger than 20 years old.

In some areas of the country almost 40% are HIV positive.

There is a thirty-one year life expectancy.

There are 70,000 orphaned children and 60,000 highly vulnerable children in Swaziland.

22 % of children in the country live in a household with both parents.

33 % live without either parent.

The amount of psychosocial support needed to reach each and every child is overwhelming and staggering in all ways. But I know of a way that could bring joy, empowerment and effective pshco-social support for the children of Swaziland. Borrowing from a model that I experienced while being employed for 10 years at The Inner City Angels in Toronto, Canada, the concept is to create an arsenal of trained and certified artists that will rove the country supporting educators and giving these precious and bright Swazi children an opportunity to creatively express themselves. These artists, working along with educators, will provide hundreds of opportunities to grow and develop physically, socially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually so that they can facilitate an over all well-being and confidence in each Swazi child. The program would include culturally relevant art experiences, information sharing, dialogue activities, creative expression, experiences and innovation in all cultural and art modalities.

The Bottom Line:

These children are the most powerful asset in the country! Imagine if these assets were cultivated, honoured and revered in their developmental years!? If the young Swazi child is not given the opportunity create, express and creatively share with their community we then are unconsciously ripping and cutting the essential threads of potentiality. Without such a program that empowers the child though the arts we unknowingly are contributing to a frayed and fragmented spirit; especially with the vulnerable and orphaned children of this country.

The main goal of The Big Little Caravan of Joy’s work with children is to instill in them a sense of empowerment through culturally and socially sensitive arts experiences. This includes supporting the development of their self-esteem, helping to build their confidence, and allowing them to find their place in the world and creating a positive relationship with their environment. Empowered children will grow up to change the world!

Let the games BEGIN!

The goal of making this model sustainable in Swaziland is to honour and educate those who care for the children and to provide them with the necessary tools and renewed inspiration to infuse each and every Swazi child with something vital - joyful and creative play!

The Empowered African Child Conference

25 JUNE 2011, 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

THOKOZA ANGLICAN CONFERENCE CENTRE, PHOLINJANE ROAD MBABANE, SWAZILAND

No comments:

Who is the founder and director of these programs?

For over 25 years, Sarina (B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.) has traveled the planet, studying how communities and cultures express themselves through the performing arts. By combining dance, story, music and theatre elements from around the world, Sarina has invented a teaching methodology that inspires and galvanizes children, adults and international artists everywhere and anywhere she teaches and directs. Completing two undergrad degrees in Fine Arts and in Education, Sarina continued with her search for knowledge of the importance and relevance of the performing arts in education and completed her Teacher Certification, Masters and PhD course work at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Sarina’s projects in television have included the 13 one hour episodes of Bravo’s Way Off Broadway, 65 episodes of The Barefoot Dancer, as well as being a movement coach on the Canadian national television series Pop Stars, Big Voice and Battle of the Blades. Her award winning documentary Thank You Tanzania, profiled her first art camp that she facilitated alongside her three teenagers, at an orphanage for hundreds of heroic and inspirational Tanzanian orphans affected by HIV and AIDS. Sarina is the founder and director of Learning by Heart Studio, a performing arts school for artists, teachers and students, that has been operating in Toronto for the last 16 years. Since 2006, Sarina’s arts-based programming, The Big Little Caravan of Joy and the Painted Turtle Arts Camp, has reached over 10,000 vulnerable and orphaned children in 8 countries in Africa and 20 remote Northern communities in Ontario. Sarina has also trained over 1,000 international artists and educators with her child-centric arts-based methodology in the hope that her program becomes a sustainable cornerstone for education programs in communities of need.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. Khalil Gibran

A Thank You!

"From the bottom of our hearts, Noah sends a big thank you for the incredible work that you did here on your visit to us- for all the preparation leading up to the trip, the activities with the children at our Arks and most importantly at our magical Empowered Noah Child Conference. We have seen the difference you and your amazing team made with our employees, in our communities and with our children, and it is that change that to us is paramount. We are so grateful for dedication and hard work, but of all for your big heart and the love you show to all of us. We have never met someone with as much passion and energy as you, and we are blessed that you share so much of yourself.”

Karen Krakowitzer CEO, Noah, South Africa August, 2011

Halala Sarina Condello

Written by: Everson Mdingwa Sinyolo
Zimbabwe, 2011

Born of Toronto, Canada
Born of humble parents
Love for Africa
Love for Zimbabwe
Halala Sarina Condello

Dreamt of Africa
Dreamt of Zimbabwe
Dreams have come true
Dreams have landed you At Mount Cazalet
Halala Sarina Condello

Your heart is in Africa
Your heart is at Mount Cazalet
Passion for Africa Passion for African Music
Yes, you made them better
Yes, you made them happy
Halala Sarina Condello

Transformed their lives
Transformed their community
Changed their nation
Halala Sarina Condello
Instilled assertive pride
Assertive empowerment

Assertive identity
Unleashed their creative spirit
Halala The Big Little Caravan of Joy!

From Sarina's Speech at The Empowered Noah Child Conference 2011

In Sarina’s own words:

The definition of empowering a child simply means to enable a child to become stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life so that they can make decisions that will lead a healthy life style in all regards; spiritually, socially, cognitively, culturally and physically. We do this by utilizing the arts and tapping into the child’s spirit. The platform to do such work stems from a few golden rules:

1. The children we care for are the most important people in the world. 2. Every child is to be treated with respect and as an important individual.

3. The children we care for are not interruptions of our work; they are the purpose of it.

4. Safety, fun, learning, creativity, adventure, and PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT is the most important value we bring to the children we care for.

5. Child spirit exists within all of us. Tapping into this child spirit is paramount to a child’s over all development.