Sofia Casas from Harambee Arts is Interviewed in Kibera
Oct
11
2009
Children from Kibera paint pieces of tin and wood that will be assembled into an installation piece so that they can bring a piece of their life in the Kibera slum to the larger community.
Erick Hasengimana is a third year Fine Art major at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. He joined the Harambee Arts team in April 2009, after inspiring Gloria to tears at a university event. He is incredibly natural with children and adds a calm, loving and encouraging presence to Harambee's work in City Primary School. All of the children of the Special Unit immediately opened up to him in an unprecedented way and it is a true inspiration to see him work and connect with the children! \
On June 1st and 2nd, Gloria travelled to Eldoret (Northern Kenya) to facilitate a 2-day workshop in 'Expressive Art and Play Therapy for Children' at the Kenya Association of Professional Counselors (KAPC) Eldoret branch.
Langata Women's Prison Body Map Exhibition, 'Transcending Bars', at Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art in Nairobi
As part of Gloria’s Fulbright affiliation with KAPC she was asked to design a 150-hour certificate course for counselors in Expressive Arts and Play Therapy. The course was held between May and June and was attended by 8 professional counselors. It was designed to introduce the theories and techniques of expressive arts and play therapy with children that can be used alongside traditional counseling skills. Most of the trainees had very little or no prior experience with art and were amazed at the power of art as a tool for expression, particularly in accessing the subconscious. One of the participants […]
Within the slums of Kenya, dense populations and intense poverty compound to create a volatile environment where conflict can erupt at any moment. In April, a dispute erupted between Uganda and Kenya, over Migingo Island in Western Kenya. Uganda declared that the island was Kenyan but the water around it was Ugandan. The effects of the diplomatic dispute were seen mainly in Kibera. For days the streets of Kibera were littered with tire fires, riots, bloody violence and chaos as Ugandan residents were targeted and beaten. The railroad tracks that run around Kibera were torn out by angry mobs, houses […]
Paintings by the extraordinary special needs children at City Primary School. See more here http://harambeearts.typepad.com/photos/city_primary_artwork/
Over the past couple of months the Special Unit at City Primary School has grown as several fantastic children have joined the group. All of them excitedly continue their journey of expression through paint. Their concentration is extraordinary and their growth as artists is unexpected and phenomenal. The children are commonly seen as having nothing to offer and yet we have experienced just the opposite. Some of them are treated cruelly and exploited at home. We have heard stories of several of them being tethered to a table. Many are trained as house help. Since January we have observed major […]
Viwandani and Korogocho are two of the worst, unsafe slums in Nairobi. In March we were asked by the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH) to partner on a children's art project in Viwandani and Korogocho. The focus of the project was to encourage the children to express their views on health- physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Four young artists from the two communities were chosen and trained to work alongside of us. The vast number of children wanting to be part of the group was overwhelming. Often we worked with more than 50 children in a day. They […]
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