Pictures from our first workshops and projects

HIV/AIDs Projects

Mxolisi says: “My first month was for me to learn more about Umthombo Street Children, my time was spent mostly with the outreach team on the streets where the children hang out. It was quite an experience for me seeing different families on the street; the kids look after each other. They share whatever food they have, cook together. One group that really inspired me was the one in Winder Street, when we got there the children had pots on fire cooking breakfast. We had to stay a while before breakfast was served; we had fish, red meat, bread and juice. While having breakfast one of the boys there who had gone for a H.I.V test was telling us how happy he was because his result come out negative, it was also interesting listening to the other children’s responses.”

This experience, as well as other issues such as the number of girls getting pregnant on the streets, highlighted to Mxolisi the need for children on the streets to be taught more about the HIV/AIDs virus. A number of arts-based HIV/AIDs projects are being developed. Umthombo will be building partnerships with other organisations working in Durban around HIV/AIDs awareness (e.g. Umthombo is supporting the YAP (Young and Positive) Project to run a creative, education-based programme 3 times a week for street girls). We will also be running our own arts-based HIV/AIDs projects.

“The Umthombo AIDS art project aims to educate the children about HIV/AIDs while having fun. Through story telling and discussions I will interact with the kids and get to know them better. I will first educate the children about the virus and ask the children to draw for me what they think the virus might look like and why. I will then divide the children into groups of twos, where I will ask them to share any personal story with their partners. From that story telling I ask them to give each other symbols, for instance lets say if you were to give your partner an animal character what would that animal/ symbol be and why? I’m also hoping to develop a life map with the kids, starting from the present to the future using symbols. That way Umthombo can get to know what are the children’s goals and future plans besides being on the streets, and we get to assist them in making those dreams come true. At the end of the whole project the children would have learned more about HIV/AIDs, they will have life maps to live up to and symbols that they could be remembered with.”

Making a Plan

After spending around three weeks getting to know the Umthombo staff, meeting with some of the groups of street children and making links with other Durban-based arts organisations, Mxolisi met with some of the Umthombo staff to present a list of possible creative programmes. These included a mixture of skills-building and income-generating projects such as jewelery making and plant-pot mosaics, projects aimed at improving the environment around the Umthombo drop-in centre such as painting and DIY projects and therapeutic projects based around issues such as HIV/AIDS. The ideas for some of these projects came from the street children themselves. Mxolisi has also made connections with a number of organisations already running projects in Durban such as Arts for Humanity (www.afh.org.za) and the BAT Centre (www.batcentre.co.za).
Here is a list of some of the possible projects
• H.I.V and AIDs project
• Pot Plant Project
• Mirror Project
• Post Box project
• Fixing and Decorating of the Centre
• Fashion and Silkscreen printing
• Writing, Poetry, Dance and Music
• Jewelry workshop
• Decorating of the drop- in- centre kitchen and bathroom
• Decorating of Coat hangers
• Decorating of surfboards for the surfing team
• Making and decorating of ceramic pieces
• Exchange programs with other organizations and schools
• Postcards, envelopes, papermaking and letter head designs
• Individual workshops by the kids
• Girls beadwork workshop with kids from King George Hospital

Umthombo is currently in the process of obtaining a new 'Safe Space' which will eventually be the most appropriate place to run centre-based programmes. For this reason, it was thought best to postpone the centre-based projects until this new space has been secured.

Mxolisi says:
While doing outreach I’ve noticed that certain groups don’t mix up with certain groups and that most kids don’t want to be taken to the centre. So I have decided that the arts projects will go out to the kids - it will work as outreach. For the first month we will have the project being runned on the streets, but it would be nice to have our own art class as soon as we have a suitable space available [that way we can do more functional stuff with the kids, things like postcards, ceramic pieces, silkscreen printing, fashion and pot plants amongst many other things]. I hope that this arts projects will help the children to have fun, learn more about life skills, learn more about creativity, empower them, motivate the children and help them find ways of earning a living through creativity."

Appointment of an Artist

On 2nd June 2008 Osaviour, one of the Umthombo Outreach Team and Annabelle interviewed candidates for the position of Creative Programmes Development Coordinator. Mxolisi Sithole was appointed and began working for Umthombo on 9th June. Mxolisi is a local artist who graduated from the Durban University of Technology in 2006, specialising in print making. Mxolisi will be spending his first few weeks with the Umthonbo Outreach Team, building relationships with the staff and children and developing an understanding of the work of Umthombo. He will then be meeting with a number of the Umthombo staff to discuss possible projects and partnerships with other organisations. More information to follow soon.

Moving Forward

Bernice and Annabelle have now put together a job description for the artist in residence position. If you would like to see a copy of this, please e-mail annabelle.burns@mac.com and we can send you one. After finalising the salary and hours, we will be advertising the position through local networks and contacts. We have already had some interest in the position and we hope to have interviewed and appointed candidates by the end of June.

This weekend, we arranged for a group of children to attend an art and music event organised by the White Ribbon Alliance. The event was held in an area on the outskirts of Durban called Cato Crest and aimed to raise awareness about safe motherhood through creative activities. The children were eager to take part in banner making workshops and enjoyed writing, drawing and painting. It was positive to be able to take the children away from the street environment and to allow them to be part of a whole community event. Umthombo staff confiscated glue from all the children at the beginning of the day and the children did not request it back until we returned again to the streets. It was useful to note that a number of the children found it difficult to concentrate for long periods and this should be taken into account when we plan art activities in the future. As for all Umthonbo activities, it was essential to provide food and drink for the children alongside other activities.

Our Second Meeting

There are a number of changes and developments taking place within the wider Umthombo organisation which may have an impact on the specific remit of this project. In discussion, it was felt that although a focus of the original proposal was to decorate the drop-in centre, it may be more beneficial to take a wider view. The ‘heart’ of the original proposal was to promote creative arts-based activities as part of the outreach programmes in Umthombo and to train Umthombo staff members to continue with this work. This will be therefore be the central focus of the project.

A key component of the project is the employment of an ‘artist in residence’. We discussed the skills necessary for such a position and felt that it would be important to find someone that is not only an artist but also an experienced teacher or community worker. The person must be able to organise and facilitate a range of arts based projects and their short-term employment should be seen as pump-priming for longer term work in the area. One aspect of their employment may be the searching for additional, longer term funding to sustain the project into the future.

Bernice has made contact with a person who is willing to support the HR process of writing a job description, clarifying legal positions etc. This will be very helpful. Bernice and Annabelle will liaise to write a job description which can be circulated for comments. Bernice also has a number of contacts who may be able to help with advertising and recruitment of a suitable person.

Meanwhile, it was suggested that we trial a number of creative arts-based activities in order to test the venues, times and activities that are most successful and to inform the future work. Annabelle will liaise with the Umthombo outreach team and contacts of Richard and Bernice to put together a varied timetable of activities over the next 2 months. More information to follow!

Also, some feedback from the previous meeting: Psychology Students only take placements where they are supervised by a qualified psychologist so this would be inappropriate; Fine art students no longer have community outreach as part of their course; Drama students are engaging in prison-based outreach this year, they may be interested in working with street children but would need a proposal to be submitted for next academic year.

Our First Meeting

A project steering group has been formed: Christy (Programmes Director: Umthombo), Ashika (Senior Social Worker: Umthombo), Bernice (Board Member: Umthombo) and Annabelle (Street Action).

The group will meet approximately every two weeks, at least in the initial stages to ensure that the project meets the stated objectives and is developed in accordance with Umthombo’s aims and ethos.

We discussed the initial project proposal. A number of issues and ideas have been highlighted:
Building:
o The drop-in centre was always intended to be a temporary structure which was open to the city
o The drop-in centre is ‘on-loan’ from the municipality, the contract is renewable month by month. It is not permitted to make any permanent changes to the structure.
o We need to think of the drop-in centre as a public space that can be invigorated and give a message to the wider community. Any art projects at the centre could be seen as public art.
Staffing:
o The funding is finite – we need to keep this in mind when raising expectations (particularly with existing Umthombo staff) and planning for longer term continuation of the project
o One Umthombo staff member has already been identified and briefed about the project. He is interested in being involved.
Other possible contacts:
o DUT child and family development centre
o University psychology department
o Drama students
o Fine arts students
o Cascoland
o Municipality contacts
Other things to consider:
o Many of the older young people are interested in income generating projects. There may be additional funding available for entrepreneurial ventures.
o It would be good to combine practical solutions with art e.g. the children currently hang lots of washing on the outer perimeter fences
o We should not be limited to the drop-in centre as a focus for art projects. There needs to be programmes developed on the streets as part of the outreach work as well. The drop-in centre is not necessarily a permanent solution.

Actions:
→ Invite the original centre architect, Richard, to the next meeting in 2 weeks
→ Make contact with the university departments mentioned above
→ Continue to liaise with the municipality around continuation of the contract for the centre
→ Seek advice from contacts in HR about recruitment of an artist