Campaign Approved!!

We just got our funding approved for the project! So we're officially announcing it in the community on March 20th. This is the pledge that supports our campaign, but the main part will be the activities that I listed in the last post :)

The campaign was originally started in 2010 as a response to all of the threats of xenophobia that our clients (refugees/asylum seekers) at the Scalabrini Center were getting from South Africans. There was a widespread  national threat that when the 2010 World Cup finished and all of the foreigners left, the rest of the foreigners (migrants/refugees) would be run out of the country too. This campaign shared a positive message through out the country, and our donors have agreed to help us run another campaign this year, with a bit more attention to the specific school involvement, as well as the greater community involvement too!

Unite Africa! 

xoxo

Unite As One Campaign

Here's an overview of our new project. However, we're still waiting for the contract to be signed, so I guess its the tentative plan. Hopefully the donors send the contract through by the end of the month, so we can really get started!

The Unite As One campaign school project will focus on 20 schools in the greater Cape Town area. Continuing from the past year’s campaign, the purpose is to reach young persons (grade 9 and/or 10) focusing on human rights and an appreciation for cultural diversity. The school project will involve various organizations to promote cultural diversity through film making, documentary screenings, cultural diversity workshops, murals, soccer tournament, Ambush Theater, and a World Refugee Day awareness event.

In two of the 20 schools there will be a film making training implemented to 15 students. This training will include media skills, storytelling and cultural diversity workshops. The end result will be 5 documentaries (each 5 minutes long), exploring different aspects of cultural diversity and identity, from differing perspectives.

All 20 schools will receive 2 documentary screenings, in coordination with STEPS for the Future. Each documentary screening will be implemented by trained facilitators, including a discussion and question session after each film focusing on positive aspects of cultural diversity. The first documentary will act as a general opening to the campaign, facilitating discussion about the issues, raising awareness about the campaign. The second film will follow within 6 months, and will focus on identity, again facilitating discussion and positive aspects of diversity.

In 12 of the schools (10 around Cape Town and 2 in De Doorns), the Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM) will conduct Cultural Diversity Workshops. Each of these 12 schools will receive 3 workshops, taking place in between the two documentary screenings. These three workshops will revolve around elements of cultural diversity, through learning about South Africa’s past, along with discussion and activities.

In 10 of the 20 schools, murals will be painted with the students. Through these murals, we seek to promote discussion and interaction about refugee rights and positive aspects of cultural diversity in each community. The murals will be the same design in each school, bringing a visible aspect of unity amongst all schools involved. These murals will be in highly visible places (ie. The front of the school) to promote the Unite As One message of unity.

A soccer tournament will take place in June. The teams will be comprised of both foreign nationals and South Africans, to help increase interaction and promote cultural diversity through sport. Before the tournament, anti-xenophobia workshops and activities will take place, promoting unity.

For the Ambush Theater performances, these will occur once per week throughout the campaign, in the communities involved in the project. This theater troop will perform drama scenes in public places, (train stations, busy streets, taxis, shopping malls, ect.) to the unsuspecting public. These dramas will focus on educating people about violence and human rights, as well as xenophobia. These performances will help involve the greater community around the schools.

This project will also include an awareness day event for World Refugee Day, here at the Scalabrini Center. This event will celebrate cultural diversity and refugee rights through musical performances by Driemanskap (hip hop artists), Congo my Foot (kwasa kwasa), KIAT (from Zimbabwe), and a South African Marimba Band. These performances will be followed by an open mic session, where ideas and community voices can be heard. This project will combine all of these mediums to spread the message of unity and support for cultural diversity. 

Week 7 & Week 8: time off and time Very on!

Last week my project manager was in Lesotho for the week, so I worked on preparing my own questionnaire (/pilot study for my PhD project) and prepared everything for the next week's busy weekend in De Doorns.
Timing worked out quite well last week, as it was my first weekend off, and it just so happened to be Gay Pride celebration here! I definitely felt at home (read SF or Brighton) at Pride, and I always find such an amazing community there!

So it was quite a fun weekend! I did take advantage of my Sunday too and went to go see the gorgeous African Jackass Penguins! (Yes that's what they're called!).
And it was such an amazing weekend that I will always remember, because my BEAUTIFUL BABY NIECE was born on Sunday night!!!! :) Congratulations Kallie & Philippe! She picked a perfect time to come!

And congratulations to the first time Grandparents!!!!!!! :) such a happy weekend!! Can't wait to meet her!!!!

amazing Amandine! :) 

Week 8 was quite a busy one too!

This week we had to organize and prepare for the start of our Unite As One Campaign [which I will describe in full in the next post :)] which it mainly encourages the idea of unity in Africa, cultural diversity, and non-violence in the face of xenophobia.
Our first step in the Unite campaign is to screen documentaries to 10th grade classes around the townships/areas surrounding Cape Town (and in De Doorns).

My big role in this campaign is what I do best: research! I designed a questionnaire that will be implemented before and after the campaign, to assess the impact of our program. We'll also have a control group at each school, to make sure our data is statistically sound. This questionnaire addresses similar topics to my MSc dissertation, (prejudice, intergroup contact, support for multiculturalism) and expands on trying to understand how taking another person's perspective can help reduce prejudices (what I hope to focus on in my PhD) in a very applicable and useful way.

This questionnaire did take some time, and had to be translated into Afrikaans & Xhosa, and ready for our first implementation Friday!

Friday morning we headed out bright and early! ( beautiful sunrise again!) We made it to the first school by 8am to start our first screening. After a bit of chaos (making sure the cords all worked and that the sound/video would project, finding a makeshift screen to project on, and trying to dim the bright bright sunlight flooding in through the windows...) the screening was ready to go.


I handed out my questionnaire, in Afrikaans (as its an Afrikaans speaking school), and it went well! No major typos & people answered the questions with out problems. Then as soon as they finished we started the documentary. This was filmed by 12th graders in Maitland, a school in Cape Town, addressing issues about how cultural diversity is understood at school, and what it means to them.

1st screening (note the brightness of
the windows! but we made it work)

 After the documentary one of our colleagues facilitated a discussion in English. It was a bit difficult to get responses from the kids, since maybe they weren't comfortable discussing in English, but as someone very wise just mentioned to me, hopefully we've planted a seed in these kids, or at least an idea or question in their minds, that can grow and develop over time. Its much less gratifying than seeing the results, but I am happy to hope that we're making an impact!

Symbolically planting the seeds :)
[but this is also a picture of my seeds
I'm growing in my garden at home!
In just 1 week they're sprouting! :) ]

After a quick breakfast stop, we were on to the next school in De Doorns, this time at a Xhosa speaking school. Set up was again a bit chaotic (some of the equipment getting left in the car, but not as many lighting issues!), but we managed. I handed out my questionnaire in Xhosa, and then we screened the same documentary. This time, the facilitator for the discussion was a young Xhosa speaking girl (maybe 19?). Maybe it was the similarity in age or the ease of their native language, but the kids were much more involved in this discussion (it was also not at 8.30am, so maybe these kids were just more awake too!). We seemed to get the students to start talking about issues and they were able to voice their own opinions. This screening even though I couldn't understand the discussion as it happened, I could just feel the interest and involvement. It was a bit more rewarding, but either way, I'm hopeful that we may have planted a few seeds here too :)

Speaking of seeds, the garden in De Doorns is booming! some of the plants should be ready to harvest in 2 weeks (spinach & leafy veggies) and then in about a month, much more will be ready! I'll add more pictures  soon!

So this busy week was quite a good week. It's nice to see plans that are followed through, as I think we started trying to plan these screenings the first week I arrived! Follow through is one of my favorite things :)

Speaking of following through on promises.....
Dan arrives in Cape Town in 2 days!!!!!!! 
He'll be here for 3 weeks, and we will get to explore Cape Town and the garden route as well! I am soooo excited! And have been counting down the days and hours until he arrives :)

For the next 2 weekends I will not be in De Doorns, as there are 2 sessions of Capacity Building workshops planned, to help build the newly formed CBO. So in the next 2 weeks the organization will grow and learn more about how to be efficient and self-empowered to keep the organization running strong on its own.

At the end of the month I'll be back in De Doorns, this time with Dan too! He'll get to see what its like, and maybe I'll get him to write a blog entry too :) (hint hint)

I'll write more soon!

Here's a picture of the mountains that I took on my cycle ride home yesterday. The clouds just majestically roll over the mountains here, so beautiful and delicate. nice juxtaposition to the industrial building and graffiti, if I do say so myself :)

Lots of love!

Laura