I exist... Open your Heart

"I EXIST"

A couple of weeks ago now after Rachel and I got talking about an idea I'd had to use face-paints and parts of the body photographed in the streets of Medina to explore expressions of being seen and heard:

I exist. Can you see me? Can you hear me? 

I exist.  Open your eyes. Listen to me. Speak for me.

I exist. See me. Hear me.  Love me. 

I exist. Open your heart.

In the context of our theme-of-the-month, Human Rights, this idea had developed from conversations about how a huge problem for many victims of abuse or neglect is not being seen or heard.   In going unnoticed or ignored victims are treated as if they have no value and are deprived of their voice, left to suffer long term in silence, without support of hope.

So we've been talking a lot about voice within the Meninadança Pink house over the last few weeks, designing our projects to offer the girls channels to voice their opinions and feelings, like their animation Familia Casa Rosa where the girls used their puppets to speak for them at the presentation in Medina's central Square on the 18th May.

Rachel and I had both been impressed by how the speakers in the square on the 18th focused on challenging the majority of ordinary people in the square to watch our for and denounce child sexual abuse and exploitation in Medina and to warn against staying quiet in witnessing violations.  I think in part Rachel and I hoped to use these images to explore ways of using the body to speak on behalf of the unseen and unheard to challenge viewers to consider what they may be ignoring in their community.  Who is it here in Medina that is suffering in silence?  Who is being ignored?  Who is not being seen? Who is not being heard?   

In hearing more and more from our Pink House director Rita, I am realising more and more how unseen our girls our in their communities and how the social risk they face is unnoticed or ignored.  So with these photos we began by thinking about the basic statement for each girl of: 

I exist, I am here. 

And in stating that "I am here" the girls are saying:

I matter. I have value.  

I deserve to be seen and heard.  I deserve to be cared for and protected.  

I deserve to be loved.

OPEN YOUR HEART

PHOTO SHOOT: 23rd May

Last Thursday was a 'dia feriada' here in Medina, a holiday day when almost every shop is shut and our girls were off school and the Pink House was closed for the day.  So Rachel and I grabbed the opportunity to set up the photo shoot and called our friend Nanielly Rodrigues, a local lass who's 18 years old and stunningly beautiful, to see if she was up for modelling for the project.  Happily Nani was free and up for it, and met us at the abandoned space Rachel and I had spotted on the weekend and been drawn to for its layer-upon-layer of history told by its crumbling walls.  Nani came along with 16-year-old friend Luana, another gorgeous local girl who was also up for modelling.  Both girls were brilliant models, patient, co-operative and daring, willing to allow even their eyelids and ear crevices to be painted! 

Nani and Luana were great company and we finished up the shoot with a tasty bowl of Brazilian special fruit dish acai to celebrate the exciting and successful day.  Muito obrigada meninas! :-)

"OPEN YOUR EYES"

Painting Nani's eyelids with eyes was an eerie experience, it felt like her eyes were open and she was staring at me as I painted, I even got spooked and dropped the paintbrush at one point!  The idea of this (perhaps in part inspired by Johnny Depp's eyes-on-eyes in Pirates of the Caribbean) was to illustrate how sometimes our eyes can be open but we are not seeing what is in front of us, we may as well have our eyes shut.  Nani and Luana drew the apt comparison with a doll's eyes, whose eyes are open but unseeing.

During the shoot and looking through photos afterwards I felt that these eyes looked too realistic, that the effect we'd aimed for was perhaps lost.   But interestingly, when we showed the images to the girls at the Pink House this week in one of the conversation circles this was one of their favourites.

Personally I feel that the strong black line across the lips is the strongest image for the demand "Speak for me", but in the same conversation circle the girls also chose the stitched lips as their preferred option.  Cristina and I wondered if this was because this reflects for them more strongly their personal experience of feeling unheard, that some of the girls really fell that their own mouths are stitched shut.  In the prayer circle immediately afterwards, before saying goodbye to go home, a few of the girls even taped their mouths shut with wide strips of masking tape.  Although done in a playful way it made me wonder about the deeper meaning for them.

Voice and Silence

(left) An image I created in my first week of being here with Meninadança, reflecting on the not having a voice and on the inverse, witnesses who do not voice. (Right) Postcard from the Museum of Memory in Santiago, Chile.

I originally thought the photos we took would be tests that we could develop into a workshop for the girls, using the photographs as examples to stimulate the girls to write slogans on their own bodies to express their feelings, thoughts and demands about being seen and heard.  However, over the course of the last week the photos have triggered a chain of events that have led to a far bigger project: "Dia Oito" as it is being referred to in passing at the Pink House, or "O Seu Olhar Pode Transformar Nossas Vidas" ("your look could transform our lives") our theme-of-the-week and now theme for all the events that will be presented on Saturday 8th June.  

Presenting our photos to Rita with the initial suggestion of a temporary street art exhibition of the girls art work, our conversation turned to the potential of a more permanent art intervention in the same abandoned space which led to the idea for a collaborative mural between myself and the girls.  Rita astonished me by getting permission for the mural from the local council the exact same afternoon as our initial conversation and since then through various meetings and brainstorming sessions this has led to an ambitious plan for a full evening of presentations of not only the girls art, but also their theatre, poetry and dance.  

I have been amazing and hugely impressed at how swiftly Rita has taken these initial ideas and developed them over this week with our staff team into a fully fledged plan, and with the help of numerous connections in the city set in motion all the technical, practical and security processes that need to be attended to (including the thorough preparation of the wall despite the two holiday days this week), through an amazing network of connections that leave me and the other volunteers agape - Rita is clearly so respected and loved here in Medina that we reckon she could be the town's mayor.

My biggest contribution to the event will be the mural collaboration which will be with the girls of the Pink House, and also a local mural artist Guina, who painted all of the dancers decorating the Pink House walls.  After brainstorming with our staff team at last Friday's weekly meeting and with a lot of helpful feedback and idea sharing with Rachel I came up with a design last weekend that allows for the girls images to be incorporated and focuses on representing peace and unity and collaboration in the community, and showing how that can lead to transformation of Medina's childrens' lives.  So a huge hope that I have for the mural is that youngsters from the different warring boroughs may come and paint with us, making not only the mural an image of peace and collaboration but potentially a living experience of it.  Let's see what happens, I have a lot of hope :-)

SOME OF MY FAVOURITE FINAL COLOUR IMAGES FROM THE PHOTO-SHOOT:

All these images are the work of amazing photographer and now great friend Rachel Alvarez.  See more of her work on her FB page here.  And keep an eye out on later posts for the black-and-white images that we chose as our final pieces.

 

"CAN YOU SEE ME?"

"OPEN YOUR EYES"

"HEAR ME" / "CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"SPEAK FOR ME"

"SPEAK FOR ME"

"OPEN YOUR HEART"

Que linda dia de tinta e fotografia meninas, obrigada a todas tres por dividir um tempo tão produtivo e fantástico, me fica muito feliz com nossa realização! 
Abraços fortes.
:-)

Petals and Post at the half-way mark

The Volunteer Clock

Processing the girls emotions around the coming and going of the volunteers was one of the first needs that I noticed here at Menindança's Pink House.  In fact I noticed it even before setting foot in the house itself, when on my very first evening in Medina I was introduced to some of the girls when we crossed paths in the square (wow, how long ago that seems now, even though it was just 3 weeks!) 

The girls had just had their first group of short-term volunteers come and go - the 'EIC girls' as we hear them called, Emma, Sara and Nicola, who came to run dance workshops, and after the amazing two weeks they had together it was apparently really tough to see them go. My arrival, only a few days later had many of the girls huffing and puffing or looking disappointed to hear I would only be here 6 weeks.  As I've said in an earlier post, although it was very hard to see this disappointment and I know it will be sad to say goodbye after getting to know these gorgeous girls, I still believe there is a huge value in short term volunteering in terms of what seeds you can leave behind and in the quality of the relationships and experiences that we can share in the time we do have. 

In creating this "volunteer clock" with the girls, the idea was to visualise the placement-period of each volunteer, so that the girls can be aware from the start of how long each volunteer will be here with them.  The girls each decorated a pink petal with their names and designs, and we arranged these and green leaves with staff and long-term volunteer names around a circle painted with blackboard paint, where corks we decorated represent Rachel, Lauren and I .   The blackboard is marked up at the moment to show that Rachel and I are in our 4th week of our 6 week placement and that Lauren is 5 weeks from the end of her current 6 months.   This means I've just past the half way mark of being here, and it seems like I've been here so long already.  It also seems a good point to reflect on what has been achieved and learned so far, and look forwards to the next three weeks to think about what I would like to achieve with the remaining time with the girls.

Since it's been up on the wall the clock seems to be doing its job as it is stimulating conversation with the girls about how long each of us have left. And yes, this has caused some tears and difficult feelings for a few, but we believe that the important thing is that it is giving the girls the opportunity to talk about the endings that are approaching, to say how they feel about them and to be prepared for them.  It is also giving Rachel and Lauren the opportunity to reassure the girls that although they are leaving soon, that they will be coming back after they have sorted out visas and fundraising.

 Pink House Post Office

Another response to observations about the girls behaviours - the Pink House Post Office has also come into being this week. Each girl decorated an envelope with her name and a design to sit alongside those of all the other girls and staff on the reception wall.  The girls love writing letters to one another and to staff and volunteers, but the director Rita was concerned about them writing to short-term volunteers so here, with the post office, they will hopefully have enough of an outlet within the house to enjoy their letter writing without feeling the need to write to short-term volunteers. (Though I have to say, I feel sad not to be allowed to receive their letters when I see their poetic outpourings to the others!)  

Another reason for the post office is to facilitate communication between the girls who come in the morning group and those who come in the afternoon group, as they usually never cross over within the house.   The girls certainly seem excited by the idea and were writing away towards the end of last week, so it'll be lovely to see if they do start to communicate between groups as well as between themselves and staff.

One of the highlights of Medina life is the Saturday fruit and veg market, the once-a-week chance we have of getting lettuce and where for the first couple of weeks I was surprised and delighted to be able to get four giant avocados for just 2 reais (about 60p!).   Food-wise we volunteers actually have to buy very little because we are fed breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack (that's often like a second lunch) every weekday at the Pink House with the girls and other staff, and there often seem to be enough left overs to get us through the weekend.  So really the only food we're buying is fruit, salad and yoghurt.  Thank you Casilãndia!

A photo one of the girls took of me in front of the volunteer clock, I like how it makes me look like I'm wearing a Native American headdress! 

:-)

Moley joins the Pink House Theatre! :-)

Another exciting development this week was that Moley joined the theatre! Moley is a fury hand-puppet who has accompanied me throughout this trip in South America after being placed in my care  by Lily and Amelie back on my last night in London in January.  Lily and Amelie are the two beloved daughters of one of my best friends back home, Hannah and I was so hugely touched when Lily, who's just 5 years old, had the generosity and projection to ask me to bring Moley with me to South America "to meet the children over there." 

It was great then, to have the opportunity to introduce him to the girls here at the  Medinadança Pink House when Rachel was looking for a helping hand in managing the conversation circles last Monday.  Whoever has Moley in hand has her turn to speak and be listened to.  Interestingly since our focus has been human rights, freedom, equality and respect the girls seem to be talking more openly and with more confidence in these conversation circles, leading to a demand from the afternoon group last Friday to have a debate between themselves and staff about what they would like to see change in the NGO and in themselves. It feels like a really positive shift that some girls have moved from being very quiet in the conversation circles to feeling able to voice their opinions strongly. 

So, having come in to join these conversation circles, Moley was delighted to hear that there were some Brazilian cousins of his in the house, including this multicoloured Papagaio (parrot) who gave him a warm welcome and invited him to join in the girls theatre workshops.  Cristina, Aline and Maria constructed this brilliant stage, decorated with the words 'Human Rights", "Freedom" and "Equality". The girls wrote scenarios where their characters faced situations of disrespect and tried to resolve them, which their finger and hand-puppets then acted out for one another.  A brilliant piece of spontaneous workshop facilitation that really got the girls thinking about the importance of respecting one anothers' difference, body and personal space.

So a huge thanks to Lily and Amelie for sending Moley out here, from all the girls at the Pink House.  Moley sends you his love and says he's missing you both a lot.  But he wants to let you know he's happy and enjoying his trip.

Big love, 

:-)

MD Week 3: The Pink House Respect Puzzle

Theme of the month: Human Rights

Focus of week 2: Respect. 

So I've just come to the end of my third week here in Medina with the wonderful girls at Meninadança's Pink House and this week we have been focusing on respect:  respect for self and respect for one another.

In the art sessions we returned to one of my favourite symbols for community, the patchwork quilt, by inviting the girls to create this giant puzzle where their personal pieces are connected into a single whole with phrases they wrote about respect, visualising how we can live comfortably side by side in supportive communities where we are each respected as the unique individual we are.

We discussed different areas of our lives where we may or may not feel respected: privacy, family, God, faith, opinions, ideas, emotions, personal things, body, friends, culture.

Project Proposal:  

1. For each girl to create one or more puzzle piece with each piece representing one area of her life from the list above, using colour and collage to represent how much she does feel respected in that area and how much she does not feel respected.  Using beads and buttons to represent specific positive or negative memories, thoughts, feelings or people who are connected to that part of her life.  

2. To unite the very different puzzle pieces into one complete whole by positioning phrases about respect across them.

Project Aim:

1. By creating individual puzzle pieces the girls were being invited to reflect on personal thoughts, feelings and experiences about respect in specific areas of their lives.  Space and time being given to the negative as well as the positive.  

2. Joining their pieces together the girls were invited to notice how their own pieces, different to those of their friends, reflect their individual personalities and perspectives.  In linking them into one whole puzzle piece connected with phrases they were invited to reflect on how respect unites individuals into communities.  

PROCESS

1.  Staff role-play presentation 

To prepare for the workshop Rachel, Dani, Aline, Cristina and I created a demo puzzle, each picking one word and creating a puzzle piece reflecting our feelings and experiences of respect in that area.  We then joined them together into one small puzzle, united by the single phrase 'respect us'.   As an introduction to the theme of the week and the art project, we acted out a role play as if we were in one of the girls conversation circles and explained the meaning of our pieces to one another, with the hope that we'd be modelling for the girls ways of using their collage choices to express themselves.

"Respect us" / (Right) My piece represents my feelings and experiences of respect in the area of opinions.  When I don't feel like my opinion is heard and respected it can make me very angry, represented by the red.  The three red beads represent specific  memories of interactions where I did not feel my opinion was respected and the flower material beneath indicates that although those experiences were difficult that I learned from them and grew as a person.  Blue represents the calm and peace that comes from feeling that my opinion is respected, the eyes saying how that makes me feel seen and the heart, that when respected I feel loved.  The green button represents my Dad who always encouraged my siblings and I to voice our opinions, teaching us that he valued our opinions and valued us.  The detailed cream material overlapping the red and the blue reflects that some relationships are more complicated and overlap the positive and negative, with the same person at times respecting our opinions and at other times not.

2. Preparing individual puzzle pieces: Each girl cut out a puzzle piece template from paper and used it to trace as many puzzle pieces as she liked on cardboard.  She then out her cardboard pieces and chose a word about respect which she wrote on the back of the piece alongside her name. Choosing various colours of paint, magazine and material scraps, beads, feathers and buttons, she created a collaged image on the piece to explore her feelings, thoughts, memories and experiences about respect.

 2. Noticing her individuality:  Some girls created one piece, others one or two.  As the girls chose their own ways of decorating to expressing their ideas and feelings about respect we noticed their different personalities emerging through their pieces.

3. Uniting all the pieces into one giant Pink House Puzzle:  Our original idea was to invite the girls to work in small groups to link their puzzle pieces together with phrases chosen collectively within those groups.  However, in the process of making what actually happened was that the girls wrote and placed their phrases about respect individually on their own pieces, which they then added to the growing group puzzle.  I encouraged the girls to position their own pieces, helping me and one another in the building of the puzzle, this collaborative work being another symbol of our all having respect for one another within a co-operative community.  Some girls were not available or not comfortable with participating in this part of the project, but with those that were I was touched to watch their hands busily passing tape and puzzle pieces too and fro, holding, poking and securing each part into its place, helping one another to create one united whole.

Great work girls, and with a beautiful end result! :-)

If you are able to, support the girls and the project by signing up to be a project partner here, it would be hugely appreciated.

 (left) Love, union, respect, peace, family, hope, life / 

(Right) To give respect in order to be respected

 (Left) I want to have privacy / (Right) Who knows "knocking on heaven's door" peace is going to appear?

 (left) Respect human beings. This is what respect is for me. Respect. / (Right) Love and affection.

 "How I wish there was respect for everyone in the world."

Outra semana de trabalho fantástico desse grupo das meninas incríveis.  Obrigada a todas para todo a trabalho boa e para dividir uma semana tão boa. 

:-)

ONE: Maria das Graças P Chaves

 Maria das Graças P Chaves

A challenge I overcame: 

To be able to speak in public, I overcame shyness.

A dream for my future: To finish my college.

A hope for the global community: That humanity reaches peace.

Maria is one of the three local educators here at Meninadança's Pink House.  Maria's area of expertise is the beauty salon, where I was treated to that nail-painting in my first week.  She has training in beautician skills which she passes along to the girls whilst also providing them with a relaxing space to treat themselves, value themselves and reflect on their beauty inside and out, whilst chattering away (hopefully!) about the theme-of-the-week.  

Like Cristina and Aline, Maria also participates in the art activities and the conversation circles.   Here are her creations during our week of introducing Human Rights.

A generation.  Transformation. God

É um prazer Maria estar aqui conhecendo a você, esperando muito as semanas que vêm.

Um abraço

:-)

ONE: Aline Jaques Serafim

Aline Jaques Serafim

A challenge I overcame: To live far from my family

A dream for my future: To create a family.

A hope for the global community: A better world with more love.

Aline is one of the three lovely educators here at Meninadança's Pink House here in Medina.  Her speciality are the arts and crafts workshops, and she had a gorgeous idea for one of the upcoming weeks to invite each girl to plant a seed to grow herbs so that the girls can reflect on the care and attention that a living creature needs in order to grow and flourish.  They will also be able to talk about where food comes from when the girls harvest the herbs to give to the Pink House's wonderful cook Casilãndia so that she can use them in preparing our meals.

Aline, é um prazer estar aqui com você, aprendendo e dividendo esse tempo.  Eu estou esperando muito as atividades das semanas que vêm. 

Um abraço.

:-)