The first days in Spain were sunny and warm. With 2 weeks of subterranean painting ahead of us we took the opportunity to paint with some nutty locals and absorb as much vitamin D as our dermis could handle. Barcelona was once the undisputed European capital of street art but 3 years ago everything changed when the city cracked down on the thick layers of paint, millions of posters, pieces, tags and poems.. removing them and leaving behind millions of square feet of blank canvas for the dirty quick stuff that is now the Barcelona graffiti underground. Through this transformation the boys and girls who have stuck to it during this evolution have developed a beautiful and raw style of painting which is full of life and sort of nail biting urgency. I painted on a strange block wall with 6 others while a cricket game sent duct taped tennis balls whizzing passed my head… fear of death has always produced the best art in my opinion! It is a strange way to work that most artists rather avoid; you paint over me and i paint over you.. no worries, hesitations or ego (as little as possible). It is a strange place to navigate as one must be free from worries, fear of judgment or disastrous results. Take it as you wish .. i thought the day was an awesome success!

Viva Mistakeism!

patrick evoke

evocal@gmail.com

SWB partnered up with Power Camp National (www.powercampnational.ca/) and the Cree Village Ecolodge (www.creevillage.com/) to host a Blitz Film Camp in Moose Factory, Ontario.

The experience was incredible as three 30 sec. PSAs were created for the National Video Competition on Stop Racism!. Working with youth from Moose Factory was an eye-opening experience to the number of barriers young people face living in the North. Physically isolated and culturally oppressed, the group of youth we worked with took time to open up but eventually spoke out about their realities. Although the films they produced were incredible, the conversations we shared around the process was what moved me the most.

In examining some of the core systems that oppress them as aboriginal youth, they began to conceptualize what alternatives would look like. At the top of the list was a project where elders would teach and share vital cultural knowledge and history to them and other youth on the island. As Kurt said: “They got what they wanted to get done with the Residential schools” and Jalene built on that by identifying the need to reconnect with their heritage saying: “We need to have programs for youth so we can learn about our history.”

So we are hoping to be back in Moose Factory by March 2008 and support the youth their to build up their community on their own terms.
To check out the films they made, visit www.youtube.com/swbblitz

Blitz! is our 3-day intensive film camp where youth explore issues that affect them through the medium of filmmaking. This time around 4 crews of youth aged 12-17 each defined an aspect of racism that they wanted to address.

On the first day the group engaged in a discussion about racism, oppression, identity and culture, led by Chris Kang and Sabri Essa. Afterward, they broke into their film crews and started to brainstorm themes to use as the basis for their short films. “What I love about Blitz”, said Kate Fraser, one of the co-ordinators, “is that as soon as participants throw an idea out to their crew, it immediately begins to take shape as a film. It’s a really tangible way for young people to encourage ambition and address these very complicated issues with their peers.”

“Executive Producers” (EPS) gave workshops on every element of filmmaking. They included Len Cervantes, a producer at MTV Canada, Tina Santiago, a producer for Canadian Film Centre, Mark Valino, an editor at Much Music, and Tiffany Hsiung, an award-winning independent film writer/director. Each E.P. took on a film crew to mentor them through the entire process from concept, to pre-production, production, to post-production.

Once the ice had been broken, and the youth started talking about these social realities that young people are rarely given the opportunity to voice their insights on, the process of turning their opinions and experiences into a film was an unstoppable force. One group even managed to make two films in the 3 day workshop, the first time in Blitz’s history! Filmmaker Tina Santiago said: “the energy was amazing. It’s always so refreshing to work with such eager youth. Can’t wait until the next one!“

The workshop ended with 5 amazing films and a feeling of accomplishment among the participants.
“BLITZ was an amazing experience”, said Ameera McIntosh, “I was able to work with wonderful people of different ethnic groups to create something with a sense of how racism affects us everyday.”

Check out the films created, including Ameera’s directorial debut, by clicking here: www.youtube.com/swbblitz.

Check back for info about our Film Festival in the new year!

SWB Intern Jamie Macbeth has partnered with the young female participants of the Mathare Youth Sports Assoication to develop a series of forums where females can connect, share their ideas, struggles and successes and discuss what they want for their communities. The project is a fusion of an Arts Collective, Self-Defense Classes, Yoga, Sexual Health Education, Leadership and Life-Skills development workshops. The Safe Spaces Club has grown into seven zones of the Mathare Valley slum and the young female participants have started to take ownership of the initiative.

Safe Spaces also offers opportunities for female youth to participate in an urban exchange across Nairobi with our partner Carolina For Kibera, as well as a regional exchange with our partner in Ramotswa, Botswana, the South East District Youth Empowerment League.

Currently SWB is in the process of hiring local youth to manage the project.

Daily Updates visit: remixtobrazil.blogspot.com
For the first time at the end of November, The Remix Project, Concrete Hoops, and Schools Without Borders in partnership with IBISS(Brazilian Institute for Innovations In Public Health) will be coming together to run a series of projects in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

The Remix Project is arranging to bring down recording equipment to help setup a community studio with IBISS’s Soldiers Never More program, an initiative that works to offer alternative employment opportunities to youth involved in Rio’s drug gangs. Concrete Hoops will run a pilot basketball clinic inside South Americas largest public housing complex, Conjunto Dom Jaime Camara, which houses over 80,000 people. Schools Without Borders has helped to bring these groups together and is committed to setting the foundations for sustainable programming around music production and basketball for youth.

The social initiative includes participation in South Americas largest hip-hop gathering, The Hutuz Festival, where the youth of Remix will be performing live in front of 8,000 people, and the Concrete Hoops leaders will be participating in the festivals three-on-three street basketball tournament.

This will be a great opportunity(WHY) for these organizations to work directly in some of the most socially excluded neighborhoods of Brazil.  It is the first time a partnership of this nature comes to be, where a group of completely youth-led organizations sees the benefit of working together and investing in other communities around the world as a united front.

Rosanna Ho has just returned home from working in collaboration with a local Tanzanian
organization called Orphans and Vulnerable Chidren’s Care, (OVCC) to
promote youth engagement. Currently, they are establishing a soccer
league where youths come together to play and learn useful skills to
share with the vulnerable community.

Taking cues from the “strategy-game-play” drawings used by the youths
during their soccer matches, a similar “mapping” methodology can be
used to collectively discuss the spaces, infrastructures and social
networks that define the community, its needs, and potentials.

Rosanna has also undertaken a micro-credit initiative using chickens as the principal investment for entrepreneurship development in the community.
Detailed information on Rosanna’s project can be found at Http://www.RosannaHo.blogspot.com.

Rosanna is currently developing the next steps to her work with OVCC in Tanzania.

Hi folks. My name is Patrick Evoke, SWB helped me get to this deck over-looking the Gracia district of Barcelona so I could participate in a number of brilliant events.

Firstly, I´ve been working in the CCCB- Centre for Contemporary Culture, installing a site specific mural for an art event that is opening up here on November 26th. Working with my cohorts, Derek Mehaffey and Juan Carlos Noria for the past 10 days we have put together a piece made of freestanding paintings, images painted directly on the wall as well as a series of mobiles that speak to the theme of the Exibition: Babylon.

After everything wraps up on Sunday at the CCCB I will be working with a local group, RAI, to create a mural with a team of youngens. Please stay posted for images, links and stories of my travels.

Peace!

We have returned from Brazil, sun-drenched, soul soaked and ready to move. After between two and three weeks in Rio de Janeiro we have returned to Toronto happy, inspired and wanting to work. The eight people that came to Brazil as part of the Emerge program have had emotional, intellectual and inspiring experiences in Rio that were unified and varied, good and bad, exciting and upsetting. We have grown, if only a little. We met amazing people with different opinions, we argued, we cried, we fought, we made up and we spoke to each other, we really spoke to each other and to our Brazilian counterparts. We had an amazing experience that was great, eye opening and frustrating at the same time. We took in a different perspective and shared our opinions, we performed in crowds and cheered each other on, we sang and danced, played and partied, we laughed. We shared intimate moments and personal stories, we explained ourselves. We exposed ourselves and had conversations, we fought with different languages and tried to understand, we had conversations, we grew as individuals and as a group. We recognized our similarities and our differences, we made mistakes, we offended people, we apologized, we laughed about it later.

The experience in Brazil was so much more then the two-week program, it was the ability to know each other and the other, it was being humbled by a harsh reality, being scared and over coming fears, awkward moments and moments of profound insight. We listened to each other, we told each other to listen. We saw the pain and pleasure of a complex place and came back deflecting stories that simplified the experience to a movie or a stereotype. We still had a lot to learn when we left but we took away a slice of time in a place that we only new in our imagination, and we let it spark our imagination to build on what we have at home and thank our wonderful hosts for making our experience in Brazil a fruitful and amazing one.

Muito Obrigado (Thank you very much)…Kamau

This report was filed by SWB intern, Rehana Tejpar who is currently working on a project with Kicking AIDS Out at our partner organization, Carolina For Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya, September 10, 2007).

Guns fired in Kibera today. The Kenya Power Lightning Company came in to Soweto and Gatwekera villages armed with the General Service Unit, the most violent department of the police force to stop the “illegal” stealing of electricity, keeping lights and TV’s lit in Kibera. It’s the way Kibera has been powered since time eternal – people stealing power from someone stealing power from someone else, leaving a few unknown people paying for hundreds of thousands to wire their homes. It’s the law of the land -everybody steals power, from those at the top to those at the bottom, but it seems that only the fortunate few manage to get away with it. Today when the power officials barged in to “enforce the law”, the community stood up and refused their entry. They threw rocks at them and what did the police do? They shot back. That’s how the law is enforced here. They say stealing electrical power is against the law, but you want to know what’s really illegal? That 600,000 to 1, 000 0000 Kiberan Kenyans live like refugees in their own country. Kibera, originally a Nubian settlement given to the Sudanese soldiers by the British in compensation for their military service in the 1st World War, has been considered an illegal squatter’s town since Kenyan independence in 1963. The government provides nothing for this community. Garbage piles up on the side of the road, polluting the water systems, killing the young and the old because of water born diseases. Without a sewage system and with toilets being a rare novelty, you wonder where all the waste goes. Clean water is considered a privilege, not a right. Health care is provided by under funded individuals and NGO’s. Children are forced to travel for hours to go to school because the educational infrastructure is just so inadequate and something inside of me keeps on nagging me to ask over and over – how can the government get away with this blatant act of negligence? How can they simply ignore even the basic needs of such a large number of people? You ask who’s breaking the law and I have a few thoughts. Every politician coming into power for self serving interests, to fill their own pockets and over fed stomachs, corruptly gaining power on the premise of fulfilling empty promises, feeding hopeful stomachs. That’s illegal. That ¼ of Nairobi’s population, living in Kibera is ignored by those supposedly given power to serve the people. That Kiberans have no title land over their property and can be evicted at any time without notice whenever the government decides they need a “slum upgrading” is illegal. That Kiberans can’t step outside their homes at night because there is no security and they’re so afraid. That’s illegal. And yet the only time Kiberans see the authority is behind the nozzle of a gun or when politicians come fishing for votes. We’re in an election year in Kenya and the way that most politicians manipulate the hearts and minds of those who could benefit the most from sustainable, positive changes, is despicable. You see them now with big smiles and a load of talk and then they disappear. But yet of all the people I’ve met in Nairobi, Kiberans are the most politically active, and supportive of the oppositional candidate, whose socialist propaganda pulls on the hearts of those seeking the most radical change. The saddest part for me is that they don’t seem to question how historically forgotten they’ve been by the powers that govern them. And maybe this time will be different. I can’t tell you how much I hope so. But in the mean time, let’s just remember that real change starts at the bottom. From individuals working together to solve the problems their community faces, using the means they have access to. And so if it means picking up a rock to guard the small bit of power one has obtained, then in my books, it’s fair game.

Vivek Viswanathan, SWB Intern at the Pavement Club, Mumbai, India files this report at the close of his eight months in South Asia:

My experience at the Pavement School started off pretty relaxed as I was quite comfortable there from the beginning. My knowledge of Hindi and familiarity with Indian culture made the transition quite simple. I settled into a role where I would mainly be teaching basic computer literacy to the kids. Four new computers had been donated, and the staff was anxious to put them into good use. I quickly became rather fond of the children, and they were quite affectionate with me.
Several of the kids had invited me to their house, and at first I was quite reluctant. Finally, when I started visiting the kid’s homes and going out into the community, my experience became profound. Going out into the community, conversing with the families and learning their stories was easily the best part of my experience. Although I was quite fond of all the children at the Pavement School, I became very close with a few of them, and visited their homes regularly.
That my experience at the Pavement School was the best experience of my life goes without saying. My life will never be the same again. The irony of it all is that I learned much more from those kids than I could ever teach them. I now know that my destiny lies in Mumbai, my birthplace. After I finish my studies I will be going back to Mumbai, for good.

Jonathan Gray, SWB Intern at Thrangu Monastery in Yushu, Tibet files this report:
After a few months of teaching at Thrangu Monastery in Yushu I have found it not only necessary but intrinsic to every child, student and human being, that the mind and body should be deveoloped in unison. Therefore, a certain level of mental and physical health should be sought after in one’s education. After having obtained a considerable amount of information concerning the monks’ education thus far, I have come to the conclusion that they are for the most part a very kinesthetic bunch and may be best reached through this lens in order to capitalize on their strengths and accommodate their lifestyles. Futhermore, I was surprised to notice that the monks at the monastery receive no physical or aesthetic education. I have taken it upon myself to introduce so far, two fitness programs at the monastery, with one asthetic program on the way. The Thrangu Swimming Program includes weekly visits to the swimming pool, if money permits, or visits to a local river should funds be at a low, and the Chiga Training Program includes basketball and football games, ultimate frisbee competitions, which came to an abrupt stop when the frisbee was broken, drills reminscent of Canada Fitness competitions such as relay races, sprints, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and regular muscle and cardiovascular building exercises. Thus far, I have had my hands full with the fitness porgrams, yet many creativity building exercises are in the making with the ultimate goal of the Aesthetic Apreciation Program to come into fruition. The overall goal, as stated above, is to reach a level of mental and physical health which could do nothing but aid the monks along their spiritual journey.

…In respect to digital literacy, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a sponsor of Thrangu had donated 5 up-to-date computers some time ago, along with some very interesting and useful typing and literacy programs. Through language games, the students’ literacy standards are continually increasing at a steady pace. All that is necessary on my part now is to simply watch over them and make sure they practice during English teaching hours. I was overjoyed to notice that such games have inspired the monks to flock to the computer room and fight over the who will play, or rather practice their typing skills. Although as a Westerner, I have experienced a very difficult and at times very frustrating level of disorganization at the monastery, this experience has given me a warm and spiritual connection with many of the monks. More importantly, I feel that the students, monks and residents of Thrangu Monastery have come to feel comfortable with a foreigner being around, and that the students have reached a level of ease with learning Digital Literacy, Fitness and Aesthetics in a foreign language. I know that they will warmly welcome the next volunteers as they had initially welcomed me, and I sense a strong connection or bond has been made with the monastery and Canada through Schools Without Borders…

The Grassroots Youth Collaborative is excited to announce that we will
be hiring a second staff person (co-coordinator) this fall. Please
find attached a copy of the job posting.

Visit www.grassrootsyouth.ca for more details or click on the link below.

GYC Co-Coordinator Position

My City My Story is a photography and creative writing project that will explore and exhibit unique perspectives on identity and community in Toronto through the lenses of 10 young photographers.

We are accepting applications until Friday September 7th! Fill out the attached application: MCMS Application.doc and send it to kate@swb.ca

SWB held it’s second Annual General Meeting on June 7th, 2007 at Whipper Snapper Art Gallery. The event had a great turn out from a community representing all corners of the GTA. We’d like to extend our thanks to everyone who came out to support us

To view some of the films presented at the AGM please visit: www.youtube.com/swbfilms

To view the 2006 Annual Report click here (2006 AR(web).pdf).

You are invited to join us for the Blitz Film School and Mobile Jam Fest Screening.
Please click on this link for the invite: Blitz Film Screening Teaser

What: Blitz Film School and Mobile Jam Fest First Annual Screening
When: Wednesday, May 9, 2007, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Where: National Film Board Theatre, 150 John Street, 2nd Floor

RSVP: blitzfilmcamp@gmail.com
Free admission! Meet other filmmakers at reception to follow the screening.

What is Blitz? Blitz is a three-day intensive film workshop for young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. The goal of the project is for small groups of participants to produce a 2-5 minute video piece on the theme of identity to submit to The Mobile Jam Fest for the opportunity to win tuition to any college or university in Canada.

What is Mobile Jam Fest? Mobile Jam Fest, the world’s first international youth creative festival, is about education, awareness and creative freedom. It’s about creating an arena for youth to celebrate and voice their creative potential to the world. A space where they can explore – even shape – their culture. www.mobilejamfest.com

With the support of: Mobile Jam Fest, Schools Without Borders, National Film Board, Grassroots Youth Collaborative, Culture Creatives and Company, Skylarc Pictures, Charles Street Video, Department of Canadian Heritage, Remix, the Laidlaw Foundation and FifthBusiness Productions.

Julian Caspari, SWB’s Managing Director, is currently developing programming in South Asia with both established and prospective partners. He files this informal report from the field:

India is one of the most forward thinking nations when it comes to alternative educational practices. The country has an abundance of fertile ground for foundational change in the education system, as is reflected in the many movements taking place from Ladakh to Kerela. People here have seen how the system educates, who it educates, and what the results are. Many organizations within society respond to this system with incredible programs using arts, sports, and the environment to broaden the spectrum of possibilities available to young people, and to inspire a different path to sustainable livlihood. Alternative learning projects allow youth to experience personal growth in multiple ways, far from having information beaten into their brains word by word. I am meeting with some incredible people here to discuss how we can connect our projects, and how we can develop a stronger network of organizations who are committed to developing curriculum outside of the traditional framework. Through my meetings and conversations I have learned much about India’s identity – past, present and future.

Still grappling with colonial, class and caste-based complexes, and having been told for years how they should develop, how a ‘civilized’ society should function, what to produce, and how to live, Indian culture remains vibrant through thousands of manifestations. Having faced the “green” revolution, structural adjustment programs, international loans and deficits, the initiation of special economic zones, and the lofty expectations of universal education, India has certainly been put through the ringer and withstood the tests of time, not to mention those of globalization. It becomes apparent pretty quickly that the myth of the “developed” vs. “developing” world complex is not so much a global situation anymore. It exists within countries, states, cities, and communities. People chasing material futures unconsciously relegate their own neighbors to consolidate their economic “freedoms”. But is it not the duty of your “countrymen” to recognize that if one spindle of the web is broken, all are weakened? That is what they say, but the spirit of brotherhood doesn’t balance a budget. Notions of nationalism have always suffered inexplicable voids in reason. As Salman Rushdie reflects, “Why don’t we just draw a circle around our own two feet and call it “Selfistan”. But with 18 national holidays in a year, now that is something to be proud of! India is a land of contrasts: urban squalor and breath-taking pasture; constitutional rights and freedoms yet societal and structural impossibilities; a bustling service sector that promotes environmental plunder; urban growth and rural isolation, ambitious economic development and community displacement. As histories are destroyed and resources plundered in the name of “development” a largely literate population of over one billion people are asking: “Is this the way we want to see our country develop? Are these social structures the same structures that will lead our country to a prosperous and sustainable future?” The intellectual community of India, above and beyond the economic logisticians and coffee shop revolutionaries of our continent, are all asking questions: How did we live 20 years ago? What has happened to the diversity of my local market? Why are we buckling under the pressures of cellular technology, low-riding Levis, and lays potato chips? Is there no other way? How is this system going to benefit India, for Indians, in the future? It’s won’t for about 90% of the population. The “developmental” successes and their consequences are staring a billion people in the face.

There is a common belief however that the roots of these issues are inescapably linked with how people are educated. Slowly and surely the plates are shifting. The school of life leaves much to be explored, but the learner must acknowledge their own ability to think differently.

Mmmbye for now!

Submitted by Melanie MacDonald (CIDA sponsored intern) in Nairobi, Kenya:

Note: I am able to apply all of the following dialogue to my work within the topic of gender equity. I also hope that this provokes some dialogue on the SWB blog-site because I would love to read thoughts on the issue of “working abroad”, authority of history, and identities we both construct for ourselves and identities that we passively accept from others. Ready, set, go!

“I don’t really feel we’re all that different. I have this feeling that there’s this overriding … humanity – not in a humanitarian sense, but just what it is to be a human being, to know hurt, pain, fear, discouragement, frustration, this is common to [all.]”
-Nadine Gordimer

Amidst the expected bustle of bar activities someone – a non-Kenyan someone – said bluntly that ‘we’ would never know what it was like to grow up in Kenya. Existing in this non-Kenyan status, we would therefore never be in any kind of position to do anything but comment on the right or wrong behaviour. In other words, we can speak (sometimes) but are never in a position to (really, truly) act on or force upon whatever morals we have. We are foreign to the usual run-of-the-mill Kenyan ways. Perhaps this was meant in the sense that, authoritatively, our position as foreigners “working” in Kenya is non-existent. That being said, I have no authority, on all accounts, because I am not Kenyan. I am a Canadian living and working in Kenya, and should never, regardless of the situation, forget it. Essentially, this stance says to reduce my morals and maintain my comments to a position consistent with the response: “no comment.” – Which is not a response, really, of any kind. But, of course, being Canadian and rolling with the stereotype: I both agree and disagree. I relate only to fractions of the position this individual took.

Bringing it back to the idea of morals: why, in the case above, is morality only applicable to nationality? People are often quick to praise universal human rights, for example, but hold onto certain exceptions. In this example, why, if something happens that I do not believe in or support … why should I adhere to the argument that I have no authority to comment simply because I’m not Kenyan and I’ll never know what it’s like to be Kenyan? I understand the necessity of rules to the game you’re playing. When I play football I don’t use my hands or punch my opponents. I don’t speed when I drive (most of the time). I don’t cheat on eye tests. I don’t walk into someone’s house and, seeing mismatching paint colour or ugly furniture, hands on hip and pointed index finger scold: WRONG! I am, after all, now trained in the rhetoric of “effective methods of intercultural communication”… But how does someone find balance – necessary balance – in paying due respect to the rules of whatever house you’re visiting and also allowing your differing opinions and morals to potentially influence positive change?

Freedom of speech is a LOUD concept and, obviously, directly invested in the idea of universal human rights. When you step quietly, whisper and, turning your head, excuse things away that you do not believe in or support simply because culture and tradition say: “it’s just the way it is” what are you contributing to? Isn’t this the side-stepping dance that has kept pain and poverty in a position to persevere despite obvious WRONGNESS. I’m not afraid give the overarching statement that poverty is WRONG. I’m not afraid to say violence, is WRONG. In attaching a “foreign” and, therefore, non-authoritative attitude to yourself you are placing change in a position of impossibility.

A writer-friend I admire, Allison, came up with an appropriate phrase that I continue to find useful as a descriptive in my life and for many aspects of living in general: analysis paralysis. When this non-status argument is made when working in another culture, does someone end up paralyzed by cultural analysis? Maybe more importantly: does change become paralyzed because opinions coming from a so-called foreign place are rendered voiceless because one must always abide by the ways of the culture that surrounds you?
In doing so, is power continuously handed over to changed…

Isn’t this the basis of the fundamentalism that, globally, people are criticizing?

I am not an outsider. I’ll embrace the differences that exist between me and Kenya because of my individual personality, but I will not surrender and keep silent because of being on the outside simply because of my nationality. I will not cusp my hands politely, cross my knee over the other, gently place my hands in my lap and smile. I will not excuse or emphasize with violence simply because someone’s past experiences has influenced (or determined) their behaviour. I will not compromise my burning desire for change with placid diplomacy. I am tired of being told “I am not from here” and therefore have no voice, ever.

That said, I overtly respect the place where all behaviour can be traced back to – the origins. But I do not give respect, ever, simply due to the origins. Origins, broadly speaking, are a tool to explain the present situation. They are not the authority. You don’t deserve respect simply because you were part of a beginning. I don’t receive respect simply for being born, being Canadian, being female, being white. Receiving respect is a process. Respect is refined and reaffirmed and the reasons for receiving change over time. Yes?

I am reminded of a conversation with a social worker here. She explained to me that, during a visit to a prison in Norway, she was able to speak with a man serving life for raping a number of young girls. In her conversation with him he explained that, as a child, he had been molested, raped, rejected, poor, invisible. He grew up, on all accounts, in poverty – whether that be measured through love, respect, or dollar signs. In her position, she was disgusted. She felt pushed into a corner where this man was telling her to excuse his behaviour through the explaining the roots of his behaviour: his past. He did what he did because that was what was done to him, and-can’t-she-be-empathetic-with-what-had-happened-to-him…

So, after both conversations described, if I attach an identity to myself as foreign, I end up asking:

In doing so, what am I letting pass by?
In doing so, have I numbed issues that need a loud, infuriated voice?
In doing so, have I become passive to the fight for change?
In doing so, am I contributing anything other than as an observer?

Here are some of the most recent images from the Gramacho landfill where SWB continues its film project.

CLICK HERE to watch the Ponto BR Photo Course Video!!!

Schools Without Borders in conjunction with Verge Records, just successfully completed its first run of its newest Brazilian project, the Ponto BR Community Photography Course. The project worked teaching basic photography technique to a group of 9 talented youth from the community Vila Aliança in Rio de Janeiro. Simple point and shoot cameras were handed out, and over the course of six weeks the youth used the technical knowledge that was passed onto them, to artistically express their own opinions and points of view, and to explore the complicated social issues that are very much a reality inside their community. Each participant shot and developed one roll of film a week, and compiled eclectic portfolios by the end of the course.

The enthusiasm as well as the rate of progress of the youth involved was astonishing to the facilitators of the project. Each youth came in with absolutely no previous knowledge of photography and within a few weeks were producing professional quality photos with just the most basic of resources. It was truly exciting to see the way each youth embraced photography in a new light, and began to express themselves and tap into their own personal creative abilities and aspirations.

It was also interesting to see that several of the most outstanding youth came into the beginning of the course as the most timid and reserved of the group. 13-year-old Junior Nunes, who was enrolled by his mother and aunt, whom were worried about his shyness and lack of motivation, turned out to be one of the most prolific photographers of the group, often times going way beyond his weekly obligations and taking photos of a vast array of subjects and issues. When asked what he thought about his own progress, he responded: “When I look through the camera, its almost as if it wasn’t me. I feel like I can do anything, and become excited about getting the best shots I can no matter what the conditions”

SWB along with Verge Records now plans to put together several different photo exhibitions in Rio de Janeiro, Toronto and New York, to give the public the chance to see the incredible potential of these youth. There are also intentions to begin fundraising to continue and amplify the work being done in Vila Aliança. So much interest was shown from these youth that it has become clear that there needs be longer and more professional courses being offered. Classes of photojournalism, video production, and computer proficiency with programs such as Photoshop and Final Cut, are just a few of the future options for this community. If the current momentum is maintained, all sorts of doors may be opened for these youth, and the future possibilities become endless!!!

Check out some of the participant’s photos:

Since the launch of Aeroplan’s Beyond Miles Program in May 2006, SWB has sponsored 16 youth from socially excluded communities in Toronto, Canada and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to participate in some of the most innovative learning initiatives around the world.From hosting resilient Brazilian youth leaders to explore creative responses to urban violence in Toronto, to connecting with Havana’s vibrant music community to initiate a recording studio, SWB has found innovative ways to build healthier communities at home and abroad.

Aeroplan’s Empowering Reach:
1. May - June 2006 – Creativity Unleashed! (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Toronto. Canada)
Sponsored a group of 10 young artists from the slums of Rio to share their effective methods of dealing with urban violence with “at-risk” youth from all across Toronto.

2. August 2006 – Turning the Tables (Toronto, Canada – Havana, Cuba)
Sponsored seven youth from community initiatives around the Greater Toronto Area travelled to Havana, Cuba to participate in a cultural/skills exchange with Cuban youth.

3. August 2006 – Concrete Hoops (Swaziland – Toronto, Canada)
Sponsored the flight of a basketball coach from a partner in Swaziland to bring new perspectives to the Toronto-based Basketball Camp and SWB partner, Concrete Hoops.

SWB Fundraising Goal: ONE MILLION AEROPLAN MILES
March and June 2007, City-wide Young Leaders Program, Toronto, Canada – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
SWB will be sponsoring a group of young leaders from Rio’s most violent communities to share their innovative community work with youth from Toronto’s “priority neighborhoods”, as identified by Mayor David Miller. 12 young leaders from Toronto will then travel to the slums of Rio to participate and see first-hand the variety of innovative youth-led projects in that city. The end goal is for youth from Toronto to reinvest in their own local communities, having built skills and knowledge from some of the most inspiring models.

Please click here to donate your Aeroplan Miles!

Here’s a quick account of the work that Katch Grant and Andy Sweeny are up to at the Thrangu Monastery in rural Tibet. Take a look!

“Our students at Thrangu are not quite at the level or maturity to be teaching their peers yet. We definitely think that delegating the right students to lead a class is an excellent idea.

We are still trying to organize the volunteer activity session at Minshir(school), however, we just found out that they are starting a three month holiday very soon so the school will not be an option for a meeting place. Hopefully with the holiday they will have more time and we will be able to organize activities. We hope to create a connection between the students at Thrangu and the students at Minshir. With the weather getting colder though, finding a warm place to meet and actually have more in depth conversational practice is our next challenge. We think that having a discussion would be more beneficial for them to practice speaking English. Our goal for the volunteer activity session is to have some cultural grounding for us, but more importantly to provide them with free flowing conversation that would be fun rather than structured class.

There are computers here in the school, however, they already have a computer teacher and it appears only certain students are eligible for the classes. We offered our help with teaching typing practice and any other programs but we did not want to seem arrogant and displace the other teacher, therefore we are not pressing the issue.

One last idea we’ve been thinking about is regarding the garbage here at the monastery. The sanitation here is something that could be worked on. The idea of having some sort of an organized way to deal with garbage is something that we think we may have some positive impact upon.”

December 1st, 2007.

Talk to your friends, tell a story, learn the facts! Today is World AIDS Day. People all across the globe are paying tribute those affected by HIV/AIDS by creating awareness, attending vigils, marches, exhibitions, and discussion forums, and spreading the word about HIV/AIDS and its prominence in our communities.

Here is a list of a few things you can do to be active and get informed on World AIDS Day here in Toronto:

• BLOCK IN ONE SPOT Commemorate World AIDS Day with a Queen West art party and cabaret at the Theatre Centre. $5. 416-538-0988.
• Siyayinqoba Beat It (Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa) World AIDS Day film presentation showing excerpts from six television series on AIDS in South Africa. 8 pm. Donation. OCAD, 100 McCaul. 416-977-6000, www. actoronto.org. n.b. ACT is hosting a variety of events….so check out their website for more!
• World Aids Day Breakfast (Voices of Positive Women/Blueprint for Action on Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS) Breakfast and talks on AIDS action for women and girls. 7 am. $45. Sheraton Centre, 123 Queen W. 416-422-0114.
• Aids Prevention/Education Projects Info session and display of city AIDS programs. 10 am-1 pm. Free. City Hall Rotunda, Queen and Bay. 416-338-0916
• Colour Our World Alliance for South Asian AIDs Prevention holds a World AIDS Day art event with henna artists, magic and more. 4-7:30 pm. Free. 519 Church Community Centre. 416-599-2727, www.asaap.ca.
• Harper’s Silence = Death World AIDS Day protest against the Canadian government’s lack of commitment to national and international AIDS programs. Noon. Free. Yonge-Dundas Square. www.actoronto.org.
• HIV/Aids Forum For Portuguese-Speaking Youth Learn more about HIV/AIDS and its impact on local Portuguese-speaking communities. 3:30-6:30 pm. Free. Abrigo Centre, 900 Dufferin. 416-340-8484 ext 290.
• World Aids Day: Think About The Challenge, Be Part Of The Solution Theatre, music, talks and more. 7 pm. Free. Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle. j.kopelow@sympatico.ca.

Chris Kang (SWB Executive Director) receives the Toronto Community Foundation’s Vital People Award, 2006.

The Toronto Community Foundation (TCF) works to ensure the vitality of Toronto and make it the best place to live, work, learn and grow. TCF believes that non-profit organizations play a key role in keeping Toronto vibrant.

TCF’s Vital People program supports and recognizes individuals who are making an outstanding contribution through non-profit organizations and helping to keep Toronto’s vital signs healthy.

We congratulate Chris on this great achievement and applaud TCF for taking such an innovative approach to building healthier communities across the GTA.

For more information on the Toronto Community Foundation visit: www.tcf.ca

Watch the Blitz Film Camp Video

With the recent delivery of Blitz Film Camp, 25 youth from across the GTA as well as special guests from Kenora, Ontario, had the privilege and honour of working with amazing group of Toronto based filmmakers in all aspects of film production. SWB put together a program that ran like a well oiled machine. The program was made accessible and well-instructed thanks to the great support from partners including Mobile Jam Fest, the National Film Board, Canadian Heritage, Laidlaw Foundation and the Grassroots Youth Collaborative.

SWB has made a significant and incredible contribution to the GYC and is a leader in organizing, networking and getting the job done. I cannot overstate the impact of the work that Schools Without Borders, and their leadership has had in Toronto. Their work ethic, dedication, artistic ability, organizational capacity, passion and charisma will make a critical contribution and a success of any project they are involved with. Consistently bringing new and important voices to the table and providing important resources, SWB is contributing a critical force in the strengthening of powerful local and global communities of youth.

Faith-Ellen Anderson, of Kenora’s Women’s Place, a participant in Blitz said, “Thank you for inviting us down to the workshop. I think it may be the most useful and well-organized workshop that I have been too…I really appreciate being introduced to so many cool and helpful people. Breanne is really excited to get a camera and get going on filming here, so that is awesome!”

Sarah DeCarlo
Marketing and Outreach Coordinator
Centre for Indigenous Theatre

On November 11th violence erupted in the Mathare Valley Slum of Nairobi causing serious harm to citizens and extensive damage to property. By November 19th the “violence” was gone but was the situation stable? Melanie MacDonald Reports on MYSA and community response:

“When I arrived to Eastleigh at 9:30am it was still raining. I hopped off the matatu just near the MYSA office, the irony of the soundtrack – Akon’s “Livin’ in the Ghetto” –fading as the matatu pulled away down Juja road. I had the immediate reaction of looking straight at the ground in order to effectively navigate my feet around fierce mud-puddles. Throwing the hood of my sweater up over my head like you often see boxers do before they enter into the ring for a fight, I started down the street in the direction of MYSA. …I stopped. Embarrassingly, and unpredictably – for I was unprepared what to expect – my eyes filled up and my mouth dropped. Seeing the number of people filed into lines feeding into the opening of the MYSA office and snaking far through the streets outside, I was dumbly awe-struck. I quickly reminded myself of a technique used to survive struggle I’ve acquired from my two months here: I kept moving. My hood dropped, my head up, my “gloves” on.

After maneuvering my way into the office I was able to see the tacit the MYSA team had constructed to manage the influx of people filing in. Arms had opened up from both ends – the needy, and the giving. I was placed into an assembly line with the task of making sure the polythene bags of maize, rice and cooking fat were equipped, tied, and moving into the expecting, rain-logged hands of those that had been waiting outside since 7:30am.

Despite my description – a result of my emotion – the mood that morning was happy, positive, upbeat. MYSA staff and volunteers were smiling and laughing while they worked hard to keep things organized. Some of the people that were there to receive the food (and blankets), too, were, in true Kenyan fashion, smiling, laughing, and being sure to greet everyone in the room.

The agenda here must widen to include more than the merely military – food and blankets, for example? Shelter, maybe? Health care, perhaps? Some water?
At the beginning of the week I had hoped that the situation – the violence – in Mathare would push the evolution of security. I thought that this would move discussion to consider its connection with the growing significance of human security (especially regarding human rights), and the increased aware¬ness of ‘new threats’ that have been formed from increased globalization?

I wonder…

Three days ago, in the ‘opinion’ section of The Saturday Nation, there was comic shedding insight onto this “wonder” I’ve expressed. Sketched there was an aerial view of the rooftops in Mathare with big, bold letters saying: “…The situation in Mathare is back to normal…” In the bottom right corner was a woman holding her child’s hand saying, “Yes, back to normal….unemployment, poverty, diseases, hunger…””
***

Youth Leader from slums of Nairobi brings life to learning in Toronto.

Toronto – September 24, 2006 - Kenya imagine? What does Toronto have to learn from some of the most impoverished communities of the world? We’re about to find out. Schools Without Borders (SWB), the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), and Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) have joined forces to bring John Ndichu Ng’ethe, a youth-leader from Nairobi’s most dangerous slum, to Toronto to shed light on learning, employment, and opportunities for young people based on his experiences growing up in the Mathare Valley slums of Nairobi.

From October 8th – 24th 2006, Ndichu will be working with youth from all walks of life across the GTA and is available for media interviews to share his story. He is an outreach worker who implements programs that use street theatre and peer education methods to teach young people about issues such as HIV/AIDS, but moreover, to build confidence and life skills with his peers. He has a very strong message to relay for youth who see very little hope in their futures: “Although we may have been born in the slums, the slum was not born in us.”

He will be active throughout the GTA speaking with youth at schools, colleges, and community-based organizations to share his story of struggle, perseverance, and success in using alternative means to empower youth in one of the most difficult places in the world. Furthermore, Ndichu will be running workshops with SWB at TCHC’s Youth Economic Opportunities Forum, Get Your Hustle On from October 11-12, 2006.

Ndichu provides a crucial and inspiring perspective of hope and strength from a place that is commonly perceived as being bleak and desperate. If his success can come from the heart of Nairobi’s toughest slum, why can’t it happen in Toronto?

www.swb.ca
www.torontohousing.ca/getyourhustleon

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For more Information about John Ndichu Ng’ethe’s visit to Toronto, or Schools Without Borders, please contact:

Julian Caspari
Managing Director
office +1.416.534.4733 ext 227
mobile +1.647.885.0284
julian@swb.ca | www.swb.ca

Thank you for linking to the SWB Blog. Please take a moment to browse through our 2005 Annual Report, Report Back from Creativity Unleashed, and the Creativity Unleashed Video!

All the best,
The SWB Team

SWB Annual Report

Creativity Unleashed Video

Creativity Unleashed Report Back

Some Photos from the Annual General Meeting:

Whipper Snapper Art Gallery

Alden Hadwen of Aeroplan speaks about the importance of supporting youth-led initiatives.

Cayleigh Warrack receives the Volunteer-of-the-Year Award and is presented with 25 000 Aeroplan Miles, donated by Aeroplan.

A report back from Executive Director, Chris Kang, Managing Director, Julian Caspari, and SWB Treasurer, Adriana Withers.

A great step dance performace by Phase One Step Group. Two of Phase One’s member have just returned from Nairobi, Kenya on an SWB Community Project. Step is on fire in Nairobi’s Mathare Valley!

Chris Kang surprises SWB Board Member, Gavin Sheppard, with a birthday cake at the end of the Meeting.