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.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Movement of Me…This is How I’m Shaping Up


After a bit of a rocky start to the week, our Dance/Creative Movement class was underway. The students learned classical dance technique. For the culminating event they were able to demonstrate plie and releve with por de bra (the movement of the arms) in first position as well as in a traveling movement. In addition to classical technique, the students discovered ways to create shapes with their bodies, both individually and collectively.

Like dance, our lives take on many shapes and we have the ability to use those shapes to move us to our ultimate goal and or desire...the dance of our lives. I seized the opportunity to share with the students my personal story of how my desire to dance outweighed the discouragement I received as a young child and invited them to dream as well. Each student shared with the class their dreams and aspirations. With the Styrofoam shapes front and center on the floor, I asked them to document their dreams. They were to include any of the shapes in a drawing depicting their dream. The students were given a string to fold their pictures up and tie around their necks or wrists – close to the beat of their hearts – as a reminder of their dreams.



In spite of the information our initial orientation lead us to believe, these children had dreams and were hopeful. To name a few, Omar wants to be a doctor and Ibrahim dreams of owning a villa someday. Humdi desires to become a police officer, Nadia a tour guide and Amerra a teacher.

While all of the children’s stories were inspirational there was one that stood out. Mnar a tough adolescent girl - who could take on any boy without a second thought or even an adult for that matter – seemed very unimpressed on the surface.  Mnar chose to draw all of the shapes on the floor in different colors. When asked to explain her picture she said, “ My dream is that my life would be as colorful as all these shapes”. Her smile was contagious, lit up the room and as colorful as her picture. This alone was worth the trip.

Melanie Winstead
Diaspora of Hope Egypt
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