Dreams Do Come True

Dreams Do Come True

When I first come to UMthombo, one of my dreams was to have children’s paintings and drawings exhibited in one of the most popular galleries in South Africa and to have a travelling exhibition around the world. Earlier this year, UMthombo had the privilege of working with The Human Elephant Foundation, working closely with Andries Botha, a very successful artist in South Africa and known internationally. The children were given the opportunity to tell their stories through the medium of drawing. The children used an elephant as a metaphor to tell their stories of an unforgettable event that had happened in their lives, as we all know the elephant never forgets! The drawings were taken down to Andries Botha’s studio and he then responded to them in very small scaled drawings that were framed together with the children’s drawings.

My dream came true, as these drawings were taken down to Cape Town to be in a group show with Admore ceramics and Andries Botha’s life size elephant sculpture in the South Gallery. The exhibition was opened by Andries Botha on 12th March 2009, and Bernice Stott from UMthombo had the chance to tell people about the great work that we do at UMthombo, during her speech on the opening night.

I really enjoyed the process of working with the children towards creating the Cape Town exhibition and trying different kinds of mediums. We decided to use fine liners as the medium for our final pieces as they were simpler to use than water colour and other mediums. I would like to thank the Human Elephant Foundation for making this exhibition possible; all the people who were present at the show; and all the individuals who supported us.

Ceramic Design

It was about time we introduced three dimensional studies in our work with the children. We felt that ceramic design was a good place to start! We bought ready-made tea sets and allowed the children to paint them with glazes. The same method has been introduced to Life Space through Biza who is in charge, and I have taken him through the whole process. I am hoping to take the ceramic design further by making our own objects and pieces of art. I am interested in introducing slab work, coiling method, mosaics, wheel barrow, mould making, relief sculptures and casting methods to both Safe Space and Life Space. For the older children in Life Space, this ceramic design can work as an income generating activity, if mastered and taught well.

Drama and Music

Drama and music is one of the ‘hottest’ programs happening within the arts at UMthombo! We normally have our drama sessions at Safe Space, but now have taken them outside to the streets and sometimes we go to the Botanic Gardens. The drama programme is being led by two well trained and practising drama professionals from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) - Abi and Fran. This program runs once a week every Monday for the next 3 months. A play will be written, based on the life of street children, and performed by UKZN students at the Grahamstown Arts Festival in July. We have seen some really good street life-based plays with some of the girls at Safe Space. These plays have been written by the children themselves and directed by Abi and Fran.

After some time, I decided to ‘marry’ the two mediums of music and drama, so we bought in a UK-born musician and trumpet player, Liz Price, to help establish the music as a programme.

We took the music to the streets and had random recordings outdoors and indoors. We have spent some time rehearsing with the children since last year (2008) and their dream has come true this year. Their songs were recorded on a CD while singing with the accompaniment of professionally composed beats and instruments. After all the trouble we have gone through with the children recording in a very noisy space, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY RELEASED AN AUDIO CD WITH 42 TRACKS! The CD is not for sale, but it is for children to take back to their homes when they finally decide to leave the streets.

After the recordings with Liz and the children, we decided to bring more musicians on board to help us prepare and motivate the children for the big music performance we had at the Botanic Gardens. Liz bought in more musicians, Brian Watts, Joseph Omo, Njeza Dlamini, Richard Ellis, and Ian Dun to Safe Space to entertain the children and prepare them for their stage performance. On 18th April, T. Bone Hlane worked on the children’s performance in preparation for the big event at the Botanic Gardens.

The children had such fun and listened to inspiring music played by these artists. They also had a chance to experiment with different kinds of musical instruments and interact with some of the staff members on the dance floor.

It didn’t just end at Safe Space, but we took the music to Life Space as well, the younger youth of Life Space interacted with the young children of Safe Space and 14 other musicians. Liz and Brian had invited them to coach those who were interested in performing on Saturday.

The children were being taught how to play instruments such as the keyboard; they had professional dancers prepare them for the ‘big day’; and poets helping them prepare for their poetic performances.

All the fun we experienced with the children led to a very successful music concert at the Botanic Gardens on 18th April 2009, which was televised by the SABC 1 and YO-TV. They televised the show and interviewed Liz and 4 other children together with Mxolisi. I must say, I was amazed by the response we got from people and schools such as the Addington Primary School.

As a creative programmes co-ordinator for the organization, I felt it was a privilege to be interviewed on television with the children. Thank you to all the KwaZulu-Natal and Bat Centre artists for supporting UMthombo; and to Liz and Brian for helping organize such a huge and inspiring event.

Shield Programme

The shield program is one of my favourite programs at the moment; I like it because the children get a chance to tell me about their goals, their past, and the feelings of presently being on the streets. Each person gets a big sheet of paper with a drawing of an African shield, divided into three columns. In the first column appears the phrase ‘past,’ the second column, the phrase ‘present’ and the third column, the phrase ‘future.’ For each of these columns, a person has to draw or write anything about their life relating to each column.

The picture above was drawn by Sanele about his past. He says he will always remember his Mom who passed away in 2007, ‘She used to shout a lot when I didn’t wash my school shirt’. This is one of the many pictures drawn by the children, talking about their lives and future dreams. The picture below was drawn by Nkululeko, his future plan is to have a house, a car and lots of children!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO DELANI, thanks to Siyabonga Mngadi for making this birthday celebration possable: may God bless Delani with a better life, beatiful wife, lots of children and a nice job.