Childhood Now: The Big Little Caravan of Joy needs your support this holiday season!!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Big Little Caravan of Joy needs your support this holiday season!!

Happy holidays and all the best in 2014!

Dear Friends and Supporters of my work in Africa and in Northern Ontario,

Thank you kindly for the support that you have given to my cause! However, I need your help this holiday season in making sure that the programming for The Big Little Caravan of Joy, Painted Turtle Arts Camp and Friends of Noah Canada, continues to grow, flourish and reaches more children than ever before!

When you make a contribution to The Big Little Caravan of Joy you empower children by helping local artists, community leaders and educators, in Africa and Northern Canada, in providing creative and fun-filled programming for children who need it the most. Your holiday donation can support the growth of our programs, so that more children can participate in The Big Little Caravan of Joy, Painted Turtle Arts and Noah initiatives in Northern Ontario and Africa.

If you are interested in donating to this cause please use the link below and include in the message box: 1. that you are donating funds toward The Big Little Caravan of Joy's programming, and 2. the name and address of the person you might honour with your donation. Here is the link to donate: http://www.canadahelps.org/gp/32283

A personalized thank you card with African small keychain will be mailed to any donation on behalf of a family member or friend. All donations will automatically receive an electronic tax receipt from Friends of Noah Canada.

Our programming in Northern Ontario is now in further development and by the summer of 2014 we hope to have 8 Painted Turtle Arts Camps, run by trained local leaders. Our nutritional, after-school programs and Big Little Caravan of Joy arts camps in South Africa are also expanding. This year I will be running 4 art-based initiatives in South Africa, 1 in Malawi and another 3 in Uganda.

I wish you a happy holiday season and a healthy, prosperous new year!

With much gratitude,

Sarina Condello

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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.