Ethiopia Programme

At the request of SCCMA, a local NGO in Addis Ababa, we organised and ran a three month programme of creative therapeutic workshops in the Ethiopian capital.

The programme ran from April till mid July 2006, with 'Create' collaborating with three local NGO's: SCCMA-Sara Cannizaro Child Minders Association, CIAI-Italian Centre For Children's Aid and FSCE-Forum for Street Children, Ethiopia. The creative workshops were supported by a team of volunteers from the Fine Art & Drama departments of Addis Ababa University.

A series of talks were also given by Graham Peebles at the Fine Art & Graphics Department at the University of Addis Ababa. The talks discussed creativity and supported the art education course at the college.

Current programmes

June 2007, we are working in partnership with:

1. CHAD-ET. (beginning March’07) Running a programme with 30 under 20’s girls/women all ex commercial sex workers.

2. HAPCSO. (beginning May ’07) Two groups of 20 women af varies ages are the targeted group, women who are living in HAPCSO sheltered accommodation. All are at risk or are HIV victims and were working as commercial sex workers until HAPCSO intervened. The programme here is specifically designed to strengthen the women’s vocational skills so improve their ability to generate income.

3. GOAL (since November2006). Working on a GOAL shelter for street boys, we are running a programme with 2o boys aged 6years to 15 years all of which were living on the streets of Addos Ababa until very recently. The programmes include attention/concentration work to strengthen the boys abilty to listen and retain information, thus benefiting & supporting their formal schooling.

SCCMA (Sara Cannizaro Child Minders Association) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

April-July 2006
The Create Trust ran creative educational workshops for a group of up to 35 beneficiaries, children aged from 8 to 17 years. The children are all living in circumstances of acute poverty and hardship. This was a community welfare project serving the community local to SCCMA.

The project focused on visual art, supplemented by drama and photographic workshops. The children were given disposable cameras and asked to photograph 'family, friends and home'.

CIAI (Italian Centre For Children's Aid) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

April-July 2006
CIAI works with ex-street children. We ran workshops for a group of up to 30 children & young adults, ranging from 7 to 21 years old. All are living without parents in sheltered accommodation provided by CIAI, having previously been 'living on the streets', some for many years.

The programme included visual art, drama and photography.

FSCE (Forum for Street Children Ethiopia) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

November 2006 – May 2007
Following on from the earlier work with FSCE, we designed a six month programme for the thiry or so under 18’s children/women in the FSCE dop in centre. Focusing on performance art- drama, dance and singing. The programme culminated in a public performance of a musical drama about the girls lives – that of a ‘commercial sex worker’. The beneficiaries wrote all the songs, choreographed the movement and guided the overall presentation. Metasabia Moges, Create’s key co-worker was the project manager and she co-ordinated and directed the piece. The presentation took place in front of a public audience at the Russian Culture Centre in Addis.

May-July 2006
Forum for Street Children Ethiopia works with sexually exploited and abused women. Through poverty, these women are forced to work as 'commercial sex workers' and are often the victims of HIV/Aids.

The group of women we worked with ranged in age from 15 to 25 years old. Some had been working on the streets as 'commercial sex workers' since they were 12 years old.

They were a wonderful group to work with. Their lives are terribly hard and many of them are desperate to improve their circumstances.

The project used visual art, mime and drama, in addition to regular lively discussions.

University of Addis Ababa, fine art Dept.

May-Ongoing 2007
Once again the University has invited Graham Peebles (Create Director) to run a programme, this time delivering a course on creative photography to BA graphics students.

June-July 2006
Graham Peebles gave a series of talks/discussions relating to creative thinking. This was a supportive educational programme, enriching the art education course and reflecting the college’s efforts to broaden the students' experience of art education and critical contemporary art practice.