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.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Kenya: On the Rocks


Rebekah Wilcox and Moses Okonji, the leader of Inspiration Center Mathare

On today, our final day of camp before celebration, we ran into a few glitches. Though the weather has improved and is more beautiful than ever, we lost the space we had for drama and poetry class. We looked around and found a space behind a pile of rocks and a space on top of the rocks to hold class. Though not an ideal or easy place to have a class, the children and teachres were very flexible and simply adjusted their lessons to fit their new environments. Gideon Ochieng, one of the photography teachers, reflects on the day:

Yesterday our class went through what we have learnt since Monday. All of them can now take us through the basic steps of the art of peace building. Their lives are full of brokenness but this does not deter them from seeking peace not just for themselves but on behalf of boys and girls in their communities as well as those they hope to meet elsewhere. We call our class the ambassadors of peace because of how serious they have taken up their roles in Mathare and Huruma. In the beginning my challenge was to incorporate the elements of peace in photography. It seemed as though we would just talk about peace and then take pictures on the side, however, to my surprise, I realized how possible and now easy it is to bring the two together in a classroom right on the corridors of beautiful Mathare. Suleiman and Salim, brothers, who are in our class have gone full throttle, thinking about nothing else but camera, it is not just an obsession. The two and Suleiman in particular loves to bring to the attention of the class all that we have been learning, I keep on teasing him that he is the captain, and indeed he is. The future is bright and filled with hope as the many children in our camp, who are mostly being raised by single mothers, leaves tomorrow with a message of peace to their communities. I have definitely learned as much as I have had an opportunity to teach these children.

Moses Okonji, the leader of Inspiration Center Mathare
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