Kampala 2008 « the red hippo arts project

Kampala 2008

The In Need Home Kids

The Kampala project involved hosting a 3 1/2 week arts camp at the In Need Home Foundation transition school located in the slum area of Namuwongo near Uganda capital city of Kampala. Eight montreal artists and educators, three main collaborators and a lot of help from Canadian and Ugandan organizations and donors was required to put together the first Red Hippo Arts Project.

The first important element was to allow the kids to continue their education as they where participating in our arts program. Longer days at school (the kids up to this point where only able to be at the school for half days) implied that we had to provide food for the thirty young students. The team wanted to have a more sustainable impact on the kids so they looked into organizing a meal program that would last for the duration of their school year. This vision was seen as wanting to be sustainable in that the team hoped for it not to be only the few weeks of our program but God willing, it would be able to be repeated for the duration of 2008 and in coming years. We were glad to find generosity in the hearts of a few Montrealers that personally took on the financial responsibility of the food program. The kids that attend In Need Home, now are able to attend class all day, as they are provided with a hearty meal at lunch hour. It should be noted that for most of the kids, this is the primary meal, if not the only meal in their day.

That first step quickly and generously being taken care of, we where able to organize afternoon workshops for the kids. They went to school, learning their manners, sanitization practices and how to speak, read and write in English in the morning and attended the art camp workshops in the afternoon.

We were able to introduce the kids to different aspects of visual arts (painting, drawing, collages and a sculpture montage) through workshops lead by Dawson College Fine Arts graduate Chara LeMarquand and Visual Artist Charlotte Henderson . The children were also introduced to photography by Dawson College Professional Photography graduates Samuel Binette and Leah Henderson ; learning to freely express their creativity and appreciate their visual environment. Sue Brotherwood, prepared some dance activities which lead to a final dance performance in front of their legal gardians and relatives (as most of the kids are orphans).

In other involvment, the camp community would not have been the same without the amazing work of teacher Sarah Irwin-Gibson who assisted in the morning classes, exercising the kids imagination through short stories and writting exercises. Noelle Retson, graduate of Therapeutic Recreation at Concordia University in Montreal, worked closely with a group of women from the slum of Namuwongo helping them develop there business of jewlery making. Most of these women (some of them taking care of children we worked with) support themselves and there families by selling paper based beaded jewlery. Dancer, Drew Sandbulte, one of our collaborators in Uganda, introduced us to the NESCO boys (Nsambya Ex-Street Children Organization); a group of ex-street children with whom he spent most of his time preparing a fundraising activities and a sponsorship program. We were privilaged to have Micah McGough with us who was documenting the project on video and making this project a more tangible one for all of you. Micah also participated in games and sports activities, making the kid’s experience even more enjoyable.

Thanks to all our supporters for your generosity and encouragment. We are still not sure if this project had a more significant impact on those kids or on us but it sure made all of our hearts ready for more…

Kampala Team 2008: