I am Jeffrey Rahim Otieno, Programs Officer - Events Management for Sarakasi Trust which is based in Nairobi, Kenya. I am also attached to Dubbelleuk Foundation in Netherlands and in charge of their Dubbelleuk Schools Project.
Sarakasi aims to respond to the need of further development and promotion of arts and culture in various forms and shapes in the widest sense but at the same time we strive to elevate the living standards of our artistes a bulk of who hail from deprived backgrounds (slums) by providing adequate training and consequently securing performance contracts for them from within the country and abroad.
Our tenet of putting some meaning back into the lives of the underprivileged ties in nicely with that of Dubbelleuk which aims to put a smile on the faces of socially deprived children at home and abroad. The latter has been organizing an annual theatre event in Netherlands and has donated the proceeds from its events to international children’s organizations among them Childslife through who they have been supporting Stara School project for AIDS orphans in Kibera (one of Nairobi’s biggest slums).
Being that we share a considerable area of interest it was no coincidence when Dubbelleuk approached Sarakasi in 2004 with an awesome proposal- to hold a theatre event in the city slums of Nairobi with the partnership of Sarakasi for the artistic and logistic support.
The Dubbelleuk Schools Tour in 2006 was a huge success impacting over 16000 children in over 26 informal schools across 8 Nairobi slums. This tour further birthed, as a sustainability aspect, the Dubbelleuk Schools Training Workshops which ran for 3 quarters and targeted over 14000 of these children across 25 schools. In 2008 over 900 beneficiaries received training in acrobatics, dance and drumming from 50 trainers from Sarakasi Trust. All this was funded by Dubbelleuk. Unfortunately the funding for the Training Workshops ended in December 2008 but the need for training amongst the students still remains immense. The Training had become an integral part of their extra-curricular activities and served as a very productive pastime.
Arts and Culture is no longer included in the Kenyan School Curriculum and there is a threat of our children growing up without this important part of our heritage. These Workshops has however helped preserve the same by re-introducing training in acrobatics, dance and drumming. Apart from the physical benefits they have helped boost the confidence and self esteem of the participants (both trainers and students) and kept them away from destructive distractions to which they are exposed to in the slums.
Dubbelleuk Schools Project 2010:
Following the great success of the maiden tour and the subsequent Training Workshops, Sarakasi Trust and Dubbelleuk would like to continue their successful cooperation in the interest of the slum children and propose a second Tour in 2010.
The Tour would be a grand climax to the Training Workshops in 2010 as it will crown the planned Workshops and also act as a platform for the students to showcase what they have learned alongside their trainers and mentors from Sarakasi. It will also be a good opportunity for the students to come together, interact, bond and heal old wounds stemming from the division witnessed after the general elections of December 2007.
The Workshops will thus advocate peace, reconciliation and preservation of culture among the students as a healing process following last year’s post election violence. The Program also aims to preserve a soft spot for fun and laughter in the hearts of the children despite the adversities they face.
The Workshops are an educative and engaging outreach program in which the process of building a show allows the Trainers to transform their experiences into art and have a platform to share this art with others. They present the Trainers and Students with opportunities to become role models in their slum communities.
Report By,
JEFFREY RAHIM OTIENO Special Events Coordinator, Sarakasi Trust NAIROBI, KENYA.