Belfast East (phase II)

Education By Choice - 11/12/09

2009-12-22T06:59:00.001-08:00

Education by Choice – Photography session
11th of December 2009

With the Belfast East programme, phase II, we aim to encourage cultural exchange, by linking local groups with groups from a different country and enable the communication by developing creative projects together. We`ve already started establishing contacts in other countries and one of the groups that we have in mind for this project is Education by Choice.
In the initial stage of this project the YP will introduce themselves to their partner group. In this sense we suggested that they prepare a short introduction material (audio, video), that could be then sent over abroad. The same will happen from the other end too, and its purpose is to allow the 2 groups to get to know each other.
This particular project started on the 11th of December with a photography session, organised with the help of our volunteer Kerrie Hanna. Through the photos they take, the YP can all decide how they want to introduce themselves. what`s representative for them and what they want the others to know about them. We all went for a walk in one of the areas they live in, and quite a lot of photos were taken under Kerrie`s instructions. Some suggested that we go to the local park for more photos, then back to Education by Choice for more photos of the centre and the staff there.
We all enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and being out, we got to find out a bit more about each other, and couple of the YP seem to have a special interest in photography, which we hope to support through some of our actions.
We`ll be back to Education by Choice in the new year with follow-up activities. The best is yet to come!

Elmgrove Community Group - 21/10/09

2009-12-22T06:58:00.001-08:00

Elmgrove Community Group – Drum Circle
21st of October 2009

After the last successful session with Elmgrove Community Group, we decided to impress them once more by bringing with us Thomas Annang from Releasing Rhythms and Davy Bates, freelance musician, for a drumming workshop.
Thomas, who originally comes from Ghana, offered a short introduction on the djembe, the African drum: its materials, symbols and use and then offered a short drumming demonstration. Powerful!... and as our meetings take place in the local school, we could see curious eyes showing up from behind our room`s door! I`m sure that made all the children want to be inside, with us, and get their hands on some of the drums we brought!
So much energy in the room: Thomas and Davy have such a lovely way of getting the instructions across and making things seem easy! Don`t think I`m mistaken by saying that at the end of our time together, we all felt we could be potential drummers! Imagine that for a confidence boost!

Education By Choice - 16/10/09

2009-12-22T06:57:00.001-08:00

Education by Choice – Connecting Cultures
16th of October 2009

The population of NI is becoming more and more varied, with people from different ethnic backgrounds moving into the country. For some, this is an exciting opportunity for cultural enrichment in particular, but there`s also a lot of confusion and misconceptions that need to be acknowledged and then addressed.
In order to tackle some of these issues, we organised a `questions and answers` session, with Ganesh Kumble from India, Charles Nugna from Zambia and me (Romania) on the panel and with DJ Venus McDonnell as facilitator. The programme was recorded for the Homely Planet radio station and the YP from Education by Choice were encouraged to ask questions that were of most interest to them. We even found ourselves asking eachother questions, amazed to find out things that we never knew about the respective countries!
It was an enjoyable experience for everybody involved!

Ravenlink Womens Group - 27/10/09

2009-12-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

Ravenlink Women`s Group – Romania Insight presentation
27th of October 2009

Ravenlink Women`s Group is based in East Belfast and it is our hope to collaborate more closely in the future.
I facilitated this session and it was my first encounter with the group. We met in Albertbridge Band Hall one rainy evening and I thought that the weather would prevent the ladies from coming to our meeting. I was soon proved to be wrong; the ladies arrived one by one, introduced themselves and started chatting. It was a nice, cosy atmosphere, perfect for our friendly, informal talk on a country they know little about: Romania. A fairly large number of Romanian families have moved to NI since Romania joined the EU, so lots of the questions that evening evolved around their reasons for wanting to leave Romania and choose NI, on the Romanian Health and Social Security system, on the Romanian Rroma population etc.
Trying to answer to all these questions made me realise that I can only offer a personal perspective on Romania: my reality can be very different to that of another Romanian, nevertheless as accurate. With that in mind continued our talk, doing my best in keeping as objective as possible.
The conversation flowed, one answer led to another questions, but we soon ran out of time! We might meet again, so much to talk about!!

Education By Choice - 27/11/09

2009-12-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

Education by Choice – Arts and Crafts Workshop
27th of November 2009

Our idea so far was to offer the YP small creative experiences, tasters of the work different artists do: so we could then use these as support when developing connections with groups abroad.
This was our last session of this kind and possibly the most successful, maybe due to the more practical aspect of it: arts and crafts with Emma Louise Hutchinson.
Emma Louise brought pieces of tiles for the YP to paint on and encouraged them to represent themselves through this piece of work (the things that are important or defining for them and their lives, their aspirations etc). Each of these tiles will be then incorporated in a larger mosaic that will be displayed either in their centre or somewhere publicly.
Apart from doing something creative, the mosaic could represent a reference point for them, at a later stage, something they could look back to and make them realise if anything changed in the meantime: either positive or negative.
The YP seemed to really enjoyed the activity, our volunteers and Education by Choice staff got involved in the painting too. Some of the YP washed off their tiles few times, not happy with the result... it`s great to see them so motivated! Emma Louise has done a brilliant job!

Education By Choice - 06/11/09

2009-12-21T10:50:00.000-08:00

Education by Choice – 1 Giant Leap
6th of November 2009

The screening of 1 Giant Leap film in NI, was the reason Beyond Skin was set up, so we thought it would be appropriate to introduce it to the YP in Education by Choice.

The film is quite intense and some of the meanings are hard to decipher but Darren chose couple of chapters that they`re most likely to relate to and understand.

We encouraged them to share their opinions with the others, at the end of each chapter, but no comments were made.

It was hard to tell what was happening in their minds, if the film had any impact at all, but then we noticed the silence. For about 40 minutes the film captured their attention, no laughs, no moves, no inappropriate comments... maybe the silence is an answer too!

Elmgrove Community Group - 16/10/09

2009-12-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

This is Belfast East`s other partner organisation, a parents` group that meets regularly at Elmgrove Primary School. This first meeting only involved a short introduction of our aims and hopes for this year`s programme. Darren spoke to them about the Global Connection project that we want to develop with their help; they all seemed very interested and were asking lots of questions already!
Andrea Brown, the vice-principal of the school is doing a great job organising this group, she`d worked with Beyond Skin in the past, and also some of the parents.
It was a very relaxed, friendly atmosphere and people seemed eager to start getting involved in the different activities we can offer.
We`ll be seeing this group quite often from now on and so looking forward to it!

Education By Choice - 03/10/09

2009-12-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

We went back to Education by Choice with Tracy Dempsey from Soul Ambition. She`s an enthusiastic and talented life coach and we thought it would be a good idea for her to do a workshop with the YP, before we organize any other activities. Our wish is to find out more about their interests and individual aims and also to get them a bit more motivated with Tracy`s help. She brought some materials and came prepared with lots of ideas on how to get the YP talking and involved in the session. It wasn`t easy but in the end we`re pleased with the outcome!
We also realized that we`d have to keep the workshops as diverse as possible for a while, in the hope that they`ll discover something of interest to them. Their lack of motivation, ideas, enthusiasm is overwhelming at times and we`re aware that the transformation won`t happen over night, we just hope that through our work the YP will find something positive to focus on!

Education By Choice - 16/09/09

2009-12-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

Last time workshop with this group was quite intense so we thought it would be a good idea to bring with us Thomas Annang from Releasing Rhythms and Davy Bates, freelance musician, for a drum circle session, something more fun and more practical.
The YP were split into two groups so we have 2 different sessions. Thomas gave them a short description of the djembe (the African drum) and we could see the interest arising! Someone gave me a djembe too and after the first instructions was getting very proud of myself, then it all got a bit too difficult for me! It`s quite funny actually as one of the boys took great pleasure in teaching me how to play the drum!
Tracy Dempsey joined us too, she`s a life coach from the `Soul Ambition` and a very good musician too. She will get involved in future workshops and she came to meet the group!
Darren missed most of the fun: he was in a separate room with some of the YP offering advice on radio recording. Such a lucrative atmosphere!
I remember leaving Education by Choice smiling, the day`s workshop was successful, the YP all wanted to know when we`d be back with Charles and Thomas again.
But they haven`t met the other artists yet!

Education By Choice - 09/09/09

2009-12-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

The first `Belfast East` workshop after the summer is part of a longer programme with one of our partner organisations: Education by Choice. I think we were all a bit nervous about this session in particular: a radio recorded discussion on the government`s strategy for children and young people! 16 girls and 8 boys with ages 14-17 shared their opinions on areas such as health, poverty, environment, and employment... a very heavy topic, so we brought a surprise: Charles, a hip-hop singer from Zambia! He talked a bit about his music, and then he offered a performance. He also took notes of YP`s remarks during the session which will be used for a hip-hop song: our evaluation on the day`s outcomes. There were smiles, they all loved Charles: such a good start! The difficult part was yet to come but I had complete confidence in the facilitators: Gordon Hewitt from the Di-verse Poets group and Darren Ferguson, manager of Beyond Skin. It`s not easy to engage the YP in the conversation so it`s all quite slow for a while. Skye Bompas, our photographer steps in, trying to help... After the luch break one of the YP suggested that we split the group into two: boys and girls: `we`d find it easier to talk! `, said one of the girls. Darren left with the boys and and the rest stayed with the girls. It was so much better already but then we started feeling embarassed: it`s unbelievable how unrealistic the ideas in the government`s document are! Their plans of doing more organised trips to the forest to help with the environment or to encourage YP to keep using libraries and museums etc. don`t have any relevance whatsoever to our group. Even after returning to the office we`re still talking about the day`s session: we were amazed at how deep some of the YP`s ideas were:
`These are not separated areas (e.g. health, poverty, environment...), it`s all inter-related`.
`We cannot be treated as children in some circumstances and as adults in others, whenever it suits the government! `
This proved to be a very revealing session, for all involved!