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, December 1, 2008

Day 4 in Haiti: Coming Together!


By Alaina Cronkright, Teaching Assistant

Day Four for the Haiti team was in many regards, “preparation day” for the Final Celebration that was to occur on Friday. The drama and dance teams were working hard to put final touches on their pieces that were to be performed the next morning for the entire St. Vincent’s School.

In the visual art classroom; on the other side of the school, a large class of deaf children were working hard in an open air classroom that is split into two sections by a large chalkboard. Josue, a Haitian visual artist serving as the lead teacher was working with twelve children on their paintings on one side of the classroom, while the other students were starting to mat their pictures that they had drawn throughout the week onto construction paper. Thursday it was as if something suddenly clicked. The students had taught me enough sign language that we were able to communicate fairly well without the help of their normal teacher! And, they were very excited to take the pictures they had been working on all week and prepare them to be hung up for the next day. A visible change had occurred in their attitude towards their artwork; they suddenly were taking it very seriously and were very excited about it. They were shuffling through the pictures and finding their own. Once the pictures were mounted on the paper, they ran over to me to proudly show what they had completed.

Fast forward to Friday: once we had hung up the artwork around the room, the kids from the visual arts class rushed in and looked for their pictures. I saw student after student find their picture, point it out to me excitedly, and rush to find a friend with whom they could share their accomplishment. The students proudly drew self portraits, pictures of their homes, their country, and natural flowers and scenes of Haiti. These children not only were exhibiting hope through their artwork; but also experiencing hope through their spirit! They did not give up on communication throughout the week- they were teaching me how to sign and were very patient. Challenges did not stop these children, or their teachers. Haiti has shown me what a resilient country it is. Not only this, but Haiti is a country that revels in their artistic ability. It has been incredibly inspirational to work alongside the artists and students this week.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)