Creativity Together Shows Clowns Without Borders How To Listen To The Voices Of Our Young People
Author: Clowns Without Borders SA (CWBSA)
It’s not easy being a 12- or 13-year-old catching up with life and school, after 2 years of Covid- 19. The pandemic has impacted young people’s mental health all over the world due to disruptions in education & limited access to a broader network.
South Africa has also recorded one of the highest caregiver deaths for young people. This age group has been hit far worse than adults. Many young people are experiencing loneliness, unhappiness, and stress. Uncertainties remain for the future, and for example the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is calling for more responsive, strengthened, and integrated mental health services for young people to support them and allow this generation to bounce back.
With this context in mind, the Clowns Without Borders South Africa (CWBSA) project, Creativity Together, being led by Emilie Owen Raposo and facilitators, Abueng Mkhonza, Tallowah, and Thabo Ramaine in Johannesburg aims to use a variety of arts such as drama, drawing, and dance in combination with play to address stress and anxiety amongst young people. The overall goal is to test the module with non-profit organisations in collaboration with Lefika La Phodiso, in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and then develop a capacity building approach to train community facilitators. CWBSA aims to provide a resource for facilitators to use in their after-school work with young people throughout lockdowns or in more ‘normal’ times.
“We really wanted to create with the young people,” mentions Co-Director Suzan Eriksson, “Not to have a top-down approach…. the facilitators have been walking into sessions with no set plan and keeping calm to assess the atmosphere of the day. This can be extremely daunting at the best of times…We thank Lefika La Phodiso for collaborating with us, they have an amazing contact to the young people and a wonderful space.”
CWBSA’s mission is development of creative and facilitation interventions in South Africa and the continent. The organisation has reached 500 000 children and caregivers since 2007, providing psychosocial support and violence prevention tools through theatre, play, capacity building and laughter. CWBSA is the main capacity builder of the evidence-based family strengthening programme, Parenting for Lifelong Health that works towards developing emotionally healthy relationships between parents, caregivers, children, and youth.
“We have had to focus on building trust and safety in an environment where these do not come easily,” mentions Emilie Owen Raposo, “we are meeting a group every week who live in the inner-city of Johannesburg and experience violence and insecurity in their every-day lives, on top of this we have Covid-19. We want to develop this work with them, and really hear them. What is coming up repeatedly is the high level of violence in their communities and how they are often taught by adults to retaliate with force to any threat or discomfort.”
Lefika La Phodiso https://lefikalaphodiso.co.za/ means the rock of holding and healing. It is just this to the many children and adults who use this nonprofit organisation as part of their recovery and growth. It is a pivotal place for the community art counsellors who are trained at Lefika with a view to offering accessible mental health services for children recovering from trauma, in under-resourced communities using integrated and creative arts.
For more information about Clowns Without Borders South Africa http://cwbsa.org , please contact Emilie on 0826125419 or Suzan on 0820403797 or find our stories on Facebook / Instagram : ClownsWithoutBordersSA.
Issued by: Suzan Eriksson Co Director suzan@cwbsa.org On behalf of: CWBSA