Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Radioworkshop comments

The whole group in one voice would love to first off say that Ike was great choice for being in charge for the radio workshop. Learning new things and getting so much knowledge in such a time was just an amazing experience and will surely be useful in the future. As for the whole theme it fitted very well with the whole show and everyone came to the conclusion that they felt that a lot was done during such a short time.

People would have loved to have more time to do the more practical and field work but in essence the workshop was a success. Some did tho comment on the time it took for everything to actually get it up and running but all in all we went home with more knowledge and in-depth experiences concering both communication and radio. The mood in the group was from day one positive and all said so afterwards, which also tells that people connected and really were able to work together efficiently.

Kind Regards,

Andreas, Plan Norway
--
Andreas Fleischer
Mandatory Festival
http://www.mandatoryfestival.com/

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Last day thoughts of Drama group

The final show went magnificently. Drama group’s smiling faces showed that the girls were happy with their performance too. Below you can read some thoughts of drama group members.

Jessica Tuma from a small town in Kenya said that she had learned from the workshop that HIV/Aids information can be taught in many ways. HIV/Aids is a very close subject to her because her uncle who used to support her with school fees was killed by the disease. Now Jessica fears that she can not start at secondary school next year because she is lacking school fees. There are six children in her family and they have not enough room nor money. She said that sometimes the family does not have enough money even to eat.
Jessica hopes for free education and that other countries would support Kenya more.

Elsabet Mengesha from Addis Abeba, Ethiopia said that HIV/Aids is a big problem in her country too. Happily she or her family are not affected directly. Elsabet thinks that the best part of the stay in Finland has been generally all of it, but especially the visit in a Finnish family and seeing a Christmas parade. She was very happy with being in drama group and she hopes to become an actress some day.

Head of the group Ulla Tarvainen, theatre pedagogy, was happy to realise once again that drama does work. "Language of art is universal. It really is possible to accomplish a total performance in a very short time." She hopes that drama group members could use the elements of drama they practised back home.

The last feelings from the musicians





Now, when the show went well and the workshops are succesfully over, all the members of the HIV/ Aids workshop project can breathe for a while. Some of the participants are going to Oulu and other cities and are going to be in Finland until the second of december.

The show was an unforgettable for all the members of project. It was a combination of music, acting, radioclips and strong feelings. Here are some pictures from it.









("Don't give up!")

Also some members from music group described some feelings what they had from this project.
Perepetua from Uganda described:

"I got in to this project by my community in the area of Kamuli. The workshop was interesting and I have got knowledge and skills to use in my community. The best thing for me was the good and warm care of the finnish people, so keep up."



(Perepetua is playing)

The leader, a music teacher, of the workshop Aleksi Ojala said after the show:

" This was the first time that is was in somekind of project of Plan. This project was very good thing and experience. I think this presentation and the young musicians in my workshop are going to be the things that I'm going to remember the best."

The international HIV/ Aids day is going to be on the first of december. So lets gather our candels and light them for the memory of victims of Aids and most of all for hope! Together we can break the silence!

Monday, November 27, 2006

The power of greengrass action,day three

Comic workshop`s partisipants have been really creative and energetic during last days - we have seen many interesting, moving and visual piece of arts. And the most important - comics are affective, worldwide and informative.

"My uncle who used to support me with fees, died before I completed my degree", tells 20-years old Awubwa Ayubu. He is from 20 000 inhabitans' Kamuli District, Uganda: "From village with many poor people who do not educate girls or with no required medication", Awubwa explains about the living conditions back in the Africa. He comes from a family with 12 children, 4 girls ans 8 boys. "HIV/Aids is a big broblem; it has made people poor, left behind many orphans and people who cannot work", he drops cheersless facts.

"Comics have been telling about confuse - new situations are scary", analyses workshop´s leader Leif Packalén who has been invited to this project as comic pedagogue.

"HIV/Aids is becoming the first problem for every person in the world", 15-years old student Davit Elcho from 3 millions resident´s Addis Ababa , the capital of Ethiopia, wonders. He thinks that the first thing to do is to inform everyone to realize how dangerous the virus is.
"It is not a problem for only poor countries, all of us must work together to avoid this disease."


Coffee break.


The power of greengrass action - faising up MY problems, on MY village, in MY way!

Andrea Andra from Mexico City says:"HIV/Aids is a big problem most of all because of the lack of information".


People were interested in the comics. Watch the videoclip below!

Drama workshop, day three

Today drama workshop members practised their tomorrow’s show. They made lines and sharpened the dances and footsteps. A bit of excitement could be sensed in the air. Tomorrow it is the time to show what they have learned and most of all they are having their chance to tell their important message to people: Break the silence! Sharon* is ready to tell her story!
(*Sharon is an imaginated twelve-years old girl living in Kenia, who is HIV-positive. The drama group created her on the first day of the workshop.)


Wiivi


Elsabet


Johanna


Tracy


Jessica

Girls' interviews will be updated later.

Music workshop, day three

Monday’s practices started in Stadia at 9 am. During the weekend one participant had to leave back to Sweden, so now it was time to choose the instruments again. Fortunately it happened naturally, because many of the participants had chosen their instrument earlier and wanted to keep on working with it. After this small erruption the group started to go through the performance song by song. One participant (Jana from Chech Republic) was not there on the morning, so the possible lyrics were missing still.

All the members of the group were looking quite tired today. And Rebeka from Hungary said it all in one sentence: “ Oh, it’s too early to concentrate.”
Of course after some time the group woke up. Here are some pictures where you can see that hands are working and making music full of joy!








Here is a video from Monday. Perepetua (Uganda), Viliina, Maiju and Ida (Finland) and Rebeka (Hungary) are playing.


Radio workshop, day 3

After weekend the team in radio workshop continued working in the facilities of near radio KSL, which is a part of Helsinki Community Radio Lähiradio. Members of the workshop started to edit interviews, reports etc. hoping to get them ready. Most of the team didn't have any experience on radiowork, but editing went on quite easily and the atmosphere was still enthusiastic. By tomorrow the group hopes to be ready with one 30 minutes radioprogram. You will hear it in Gloria Cultural Arena where also the other workshops are presenting their work.

(KSL - Radio)
(Gloria Cultural Arena)

Here are some photos and video of the third day.















Friday, November 24, 2006

Radio workshop, day 2, some comments

Monika and Milja are members of the Plan Finland´s Children´s board which main goal is to influence on the realization of children´s rights by informing them in developing countries.Girls want to make changes by positive action.

They are pretty excited about the abilities they´re learning in the radio workshop:
"Radio as a means of communication can be very efficient. We started a bit slow but now it's rolling better and we have got more excited about it."

















Monika and Milja.

Radio workshop, day 2

Second day of radio workshop started full of power from the very first moment. Purpose of day was to collect as much material in to minidisk as possible. Material will be edited later. The plan is to make a 30 minute radio program that will be presented in culture center Gloria next Tuesday. Here is some photos and videos of our second day.












Music workshop, day two

Day two started with piano triads. The participants played in pairs and tried to create new songs. Finally pairs created quite sad melodies, but when the group used some improvisation these small melodies started to work!



Everyone is concentrating!















Jens and Viliina are playing together.










Ida and Maiju are listening to Aleksi.













Geoffrey is observing.
















The melodies have born!













Rebeka is drumming.











Jana was telling some feelings on the break:


"We are composing in the music workshop our own music through which we want to influence others and most of all express our feelings. I'm really enjoying!"

"I think that education and information are the first steps to present HIV and this project is very well and worthy for that purpose."



So now the music group has couple of melodies and rhytms. The lyrics for the melodies are coming later.

In the afternoon music group worked with drama group. Together they made the first part of the performance.






Girls are watching.



Drama workshop, day two

Drama workshop is on fire! Watch introduction of group members on the video below.




One task was to cover eyes with a piece of fabric and walk around the room. Everytime they accidently hit each other they had to act like they were frightened.
















Another task was to play with rakes. When the play began they were not yet sure what was it's purpose. During the play they found out they were working with Sharon's anger towards her infection. (Sharon is the girl the group created yesterday).



















Jessica Tuma, Elsabet Mengesha, Tracy Marega, Wiivi Lehto and Johanna Lillqvist experienced and expressed various kind of emotions related to Hiv themes. They improvised and focused on how to express anger, fear, suffering, surprised etc.

During the day these plays started to form the final performance, the story of Sharon. A lot is still to be done before Tuesday but if something can be read from the workshop leader Ulla Tarvainen's smiling face it is that these girls can do it! Go girls!

Comic workshop,day two.


Silence working.


"This is fun. I haven´t thougth about comics in a way to send messages, so it´s also something new", says Sofia about her feelings for the workshop.


"I think it´s very important to develop this technique as a political science student because it will serve as a tool", says Andrea, 22-years old exchange student. "This is a very useful tool in political issues diffusion: it´s practical, easy and the most important, it´s universal", she wonders.

Andrea has been in Helsinki since June 2006. She´ll stay here untill January 2007. "Helsinki is a cool city", she says.


Focusing.


Thinking the visualscript.


"These guestions needs to be asked before making the visualscript:
-is the story short enough?
-is the heading ok?
-is the dialog ok?
-does the dialog go from left to right?
-is the balance ok, not too much text or pictures?", Packalén explains.