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.

Hope Enterprises, Addis Ababa. October – December 2007

Hope Enterprises is Ethiopia's oldest native NGO, they serve a large community throughout Ethiopia. Create was invited to run a series of programmes in their Addis Ababa school, children from nursery age to 17/28 years old attend the school.

Teacher Training

An eight-week programme, attended by all the teachers including the head teacher – around 35 staff members in total. Three sessions a week, two hours per session were organised.

Physical and verbal abuse was looked at in depth, under the guise of 'discipline'.It is commonplace within Ethiopian society to beat and verbally abuse children. The use of corporal punishment as a means of disciplining students is not allowed by Hope, however we found it to be widely employed.

In conjunction with the creative education programme and the clinic work, corporal punishment was discussed at length and a campaign to free the school from it was mounted.

The Training programme, as is often the case 'shook things up'. The Director of Hope, DR.Minas and the school Director were fully behind Create's work at the school and many changes of method were initiated as a result.

Creative education/Community Theatre

A drama group was assembled of children of all ages, discussions were initiated with the children about corporal punishment in school and home. The group gave examples of corporal punishment and verbal abuse, true 'stories' of abuse perpetrated on them. A selection of four 'stories' were chosen, scripted and dramatized by the children in four groups. These dramatic presentations were made to parents, school-mates and teachers, an open discussion followed, points raised by the audience were responded to by the children themselves.

The key aims of this programme:

1. Provide a voice for the participating students to discuss abuse in the school and home, using drama.
2. Offer a creative means of discussing a pressing social issue.
3. Create a public forum to debate corporal punishment in schools and homes.
4. Agree on a code of conduct with school and parents.

Child & Teacher 'Surgery'

A space at the school was set aside three days a week, teachers and students were free to come to the 'surgery' to discuss any areas of concern. The meeting was strictly confidential.

The clinic offered students the opportunity to openly discuss delicate areas in confidence, giving them a 'voice' and empowering them thereby. Teachers were confronted with specific issues of abuse and asked to face the child often offering apologies and commitment to alter their methods.

The surgery was part of an integrated series of activities aimed at dealing with corporal punishment and verbal abuse in the school. Students made good use of the 'surgery' often seeing it as a route to resolution and change. Unfortunately teachers did not take advantage of the space and seemed to feel threatened.

ANFAE. Addis Ababa. October – November 2007

Association of non-formal adult education Ethiopia, runs schools in rural areas of Ethiopia and in Addis Ababa. Administration of the schools is undertaken by members of the community, teachers, from the community receive basic training by ANFAE.

Non-formal education uses a flexible curriculum, to accommodate children who are working within or outside the family home and 'street children'.

Teacher training

The Create Trust was asked to run an intensive teacher training programme for teaching staff working in Addis.

Community Theatre

The programme designed for Hope Enterprises was the model for the community theatre work at ANFAE. Thirty children aged six to 14 years came forward to make up a 'drama group'. Three sessions a week were organized at a school on the outskirts of the city, workshops took place outside and focused on group work and performance.

GOAL Ethiopia. Addis Ababa December- April 2007

Goal is an international Aid organization, with a strong presence in Ethiopia. A main focus of their work in Addis is with 'street children', Create ran a major programme in one of GOAL's city shelters for boys.

A training programme for GOAL social workers and care workers is also planned.

Creative Education

A programme using visual and performance art (including dance) was designed in conjunction with the boys. Three sessions a week were organized and with key volunteers from Addis Ababa university the work went ahead.

Plays were written by the boys and performed to all in the shelter in small groups, the programme was designed to be flexible and respond to the groups interest, it was found that many were inclined toward visual art, we therefore emphasized this area of expression.

A difficult group to work with, we saw tremendous development in many, some during our time were happily re-united with their families thanks to the outreach work undertaken by the GOAL team.

Concentration/listening Work

A supplementary project to the Creative Education Programme, focusing on the child's ability to listen, retain information and concentrate' was organised.

After working with the boys for two months, we have identified 'listening &concentration' to be a key difficulty for the children and designed a simple project to strengthen these skills.

We worked with the boys individually for short fixed periods of time, using a variety of exercises. A clear record of the project was kept.

CHAD-ET Addis Ababa. July – September 2007

Chad-et (child aid & development Ethiopia), runs numerous programmes in Addis Ababa and in rural areas throughout the country. In the city they work with 'street children' and commercial sex workers, they also run schools and conduct sex education projects.

Creative education for women

A major programme was organised for two groups of women, totalling around 35. All had been and some still were, working as commercial sex workers in the Merkato area of the city. An area known for its traders, reputedly the 'largest market area in Africa', is also home to a great many under 18 sex workers and street children.

Create ran a three month programme, using visual and performance art. The programme was of great benefit and we witnessed change in many of the women, a growing self confidence and belief was seen and many 'wallflowers' blossomed.

Teacher training pilot

A pilot teacher training programme was initiated, for six weeks we worked with a team of twenty teachers. The teaching staff in the no-formal schools are not well trained, we found them to be resistant to new ideas however, the emphasis during the training was placed firmly on the development of an attitude of mind which is open, non-competitive, tolerant and creative – new ideas for many.

Creative Education Pilot

Working with two groups of 'teenager', some ex street children, others form very poor backgrounds. They were all in vocational training schemes and a series of workshops were designed to stimulate creative, abstract thinking, an emphasis was placed on lateral thought.

HAPSCO Addis Ababa. April – July 2007

HASCO is an Ethiopian Ngo, founded by an Ethiopian nurse who, when working with HIV/Aids victims, set up the organisation to offer education and general support to women and children victims of the disease.

Creative Education

Create ran a three month programme for a group of thirty or so women. Specialist volunteers from Britain contributed to the programme, story telling was a key feature and along with design based visual art workshops an integrated programme was organised to feed into the vocational training being offered by HAPSCO.

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.