Diapora of Hope 09

Fifteen women and two men from the United States and Canada were an excited and professional group of artists traveling to Philadelphia, Egypt, Kenya, Guatemala and Nicaragua to participate in BuildaBridge's annual Diaspora of Hope. The artists were joined by scores of local artists in each country as they planned, trained and implemented an arts camp on the themes of hope, peace, and unity with children from very difficult circumstances. The BuildaBridge Classroom model was the structure for each camp. This was the first year Diaspora of Hope conducted a project in Philadelphia with a local partner--a shelter abused women and their children. The mission of Diaspora of Hope is to provide children with a brighter future and build the capacity and sustainable development of local organizations serving these children who live in poverty. The following blogs from around the world describe the events of the week and stories of transformation.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Diaspora Haiti Team is energized and synergized






This past weekend was an incredible three-day experience for the Diaspora Haiti team. The first U.S. participant, Bill Davis, arrived on Friday afternoon. He was soon followed by Alaina Cronkright on Saturday morning and Shannon Cassaday-Ho on Saturday afternoon. Despite the fact that we had not all met before, there seemed to be a natural coallescence of spirits. We easily identified tasks to be completed and details finalized before the Sunday afternoon full team training.

The U.S. members of the team worshipped together on Sunday morning at the 7 a.m. children's service at the Trinite Cathedral. Sharing liturgy with over 200 children and experiencing their leadership and faith as they read the lessons, collected the offering and guided the singing, set the stage for the upcoming week.

This wonderful morning was followed by the long awaited union of the U.S. members with the Haitian artists. These introductions occurred in the context of a special noonday concert at the Trinite Music School. The wide range of orchestral and vocal performances provided by the Trinite Music School students, opened the hearts and minds of the Diaspora Haiti team to all the rich possibilities of discovering and re-discovering hope through the arts.

Following the concert, the Diaspora Haiti team spent two hours of intense training and orientation together. In addition to the faces of those expected, new faces had heard of the program and joined the circle just days earlier. Two other Haitian artists literally appeared at the training without any previous communication. It was clear that a family had formed before hands were shaken and traditional Haitian kisses on cheeks exchanged. In some ways, the Diaspora Haiti team understood its mission and was ready to start long before this Sunday arrived. And so, we were off and running!


1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think what you are doing in Haiit is simply amazing, you bring hope to adults and children with a different approach,arts definitely allow people to express their feelings, ideas, talents and sometimes takes you away from the sad realities we encounter in life. Bringing hope to the children of Haiti is essential for their growth and participation in the society of this country facing major economic an development issues.

My name is Amelie and my passion for Haiti comes from the internship i recently started with an organization called International Action.
We install water treatment systems in Haiti, also in the idea of helping anf bringing hope to Haitian families.
You probably know very well the water problem in Haiti, almost every water source is contaminated and this is why our work has a major impact. Today we protect 400,000 people with clean water in the Port-au-Prince region.

I thought it would be interesting if you could write an article about water on your blog to raise people's awareness about this problem that kills thousands every year, and how we can bring a solution to it with little help.

You can visit our website at the following adress: www.haitiwater.org

Continue the good work you guys are great!

Thank you.

Amelie