Victoria Okoye, Lagos Community Manager
In marginalized communities like Ajegunle and Oshodi, the BornTroWay Creative Arts Project is empowering and spotlighting youth art creativity. The project started in Ajegunle, considered one of Lagos’ harshest slum settlements. But the project capitalizes on the contradictions within this space: Ajegunle, like other blighted areas, is often typecast for its challenges and labeled a slum, an informal and marginalized community. However, it is also a thriving place where some of the country’s premier athletes and performers have grown up: There’s Emmanuel Amuneke, a former footballer who represented Nigeria in the 1994 World Cup, and also Don Jazzy, the president and founder of the major music label Mo Hits Records, which produces successful music acts who have reached national and international fame. Despite its social and economic challenges, there is creativity — often untapped — in such communities.
The organization’s name is a play on words; the Nigerian pidgin phrase born troway (“born throw away”) refers to the alienation and marginalization of these youth from mainstream society. The project’s aim is in celebrating the talent of young people in these communities, and giving them the opportunity to express their unique voice.
“I always think words matter a lot in terms of inspiring and projecting feelings and reality,” says Ilaria Chessa, BornTroWay’s co-founder — who, along with international music artist Ade Bantu, founded the organization in 2011. In their brainstorming sessions, she says they discussed how kids from these deprived communities are treated as born troway — left there, abandoned, for life to take care of them. “Why not choose a word that actually pierces through the conscious of people and makes them see the truth behind the labels that they use?” she questioned. The youth participants may initially see themselves as marginalized, she said, but they bring a new and different definition through their artistic creations. “Rather, it’s those people in society who are looking at these kids as worthless, as if they don’t stand a chance — it is they who are missing out — by not investing in the talents that these kids have at so many levels.”
The project’s formula is simple: a competitive public audition, through which just over a dozen youth are selected, then an intensive, five-day creativity training workshop, and then, finally, a public performance. Through the five-day youth arts training — focused on dance, drama, spoken word, and music — the project builds the talents, self-esteem, and consciousness of young people (from the ages of 15-22 years) who, as part of their training, create an original script and choreography for public performance.
The team includes Ilaria Chessa, a former development economist and film festival organizer, as producer and co-founder; Ade Bantu, an award-winning musical artist, as co-founder, music facilitator, and creative director; culture, art, and media consultant Ropo Ewenla and drama instructor Kayode Omolola, who serve as acting and theatre facilitators; spoken word poet, writer, and teacher AJ Dagga Tolar, who facilitates the spoken word and music; and Segun Adefila, a performance artist who facilitates the dance portion of the workshop.
From the margins to center stage
Working through these youth, the project also aims to promote peace and unity. The project helps these young people to come out of their shell, explore, and exhibit their creative talents. Through dance, poetry, theatre, and music, their public performances regularly feature calls for community action and improvement, from addressing waste and pollution to education, from child abuse and marginalization to collective responsibility.
It was in Ajegunle that BornTroWay was launched in May 2011. From there, the project took its initiative to Port Harcourt in October 2011 and Durban, South Africa in December 2011. While in Durban, the participants also took part in the World Climate Conference. For its fourth edition in August 2012, BornTroWay returned to Lagos in the Oshodi community. The Oshodi public performance took place in Cairo Market, where youth performed original music and theatre for a diverse audience. The lyrics for the original song the youth performed called for the residents to transform their community into a better place, free of violence, a place of peace and harmony.
For you and I to talk together
As a family, in peace and harmony
We can make Oshodi a better place
For you and you, for me and you
We can make Oshodi a better place
In Oshodi we don’t wan fight
the children sing in this video of their Cairo Market performance, captured by local news coverage of the creative arts project.
For its fifth edition, BornTroWay worked with youth in the Bariga community of Lagos. Altogether, Chessa estimates, BornTroWay has worked with nearly 200 youth in its work so far.
Planting the seeds for new opportunities
For the youth participants, BornTroWay is making a difference in their lives that goes far beyond teaching them to dance, to act, write a song or rap. Even in the first few days of each workshop, Chessa says, the difference she sees in many of the kids is amazing. At the beginning of the workshop, she sees kids who lack confidence, who don’t know how to present themselves. Yet from the second day, she and her team see a new set of people; even the light she sees in their eyes is amazing, she says.
“The transformation is a marvel to observe,” she says. “Because it’s only a five-day course … it’s just there to plant a seed of inspiration, and then that seed is watered by the kids themselves. It’s just basically a wake-up call to say, ‘Hey, you guys, have you seen what you’ve got?’”
Former participants can speak endlessly to the skills and insights they’ve gained from their experience. Some, like Godson, a 23-year old youth turned musical artist, are following a more predictable path: “As I’m talking to you now, I have a record deal, and just I launched my album last week,” he says. Godson participated in the BornTroWay Oshodi workshop in August 2012. His album, Sabulou (Hausa for “soap”) refers to his call for everyone to wash away bad problems and thoughts through dance.
“I learned a lot, I learned to believe in myself,” affirms Godson, who says one of the major talents he gained through the workshop was in dance, as well as support in his music from Bantu. “Whatever I am doing in my career, I’m always with BornTroWay,” he says. “We’re like family, we’re a family.”
18-year-old Franchesca from Ajegunle, who recently completed her secondary school study, says the most important lessons she gained from the workshop were on teamwork, humility, and love. “If you say you want to work on your own, you won’t achieve anything in life,” she said. “You have to carry people along, you have to work as a team.” She’s now part of a team working to organize a concert in February for BroTroWay Ajegunle, putting into practice the lessons she’s learned from her experience.
While some of the project’s participants may continue with careers in the arts, Chessa says that the important takeaway for these kids is the self-discovery of their talents and how to use them, in whatever facet of life. “We are using arts as a means to awaken kids self-confidence and appreciation for hard work, focus, and teamwork. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean that we are hoping that everybody becomes an artist,” Chessa says. “With that self-confidence, they become a leader in any walk of life that they happen to be in … They may discover their talents in the arts, or they may become doctors or nurses; it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the spirit with which they are doing these things is a leading spirit.”
“We want to reawaken the sense of self-worth in our youth, so that they can truly play their role in our society,” she adds.
Future opportunities
In a little over a year, BornTroWay has built a strong, successful history of performances in Nigeria and South Africa. In the future, BornTroWay and its leadership team look to partner with local organizations and other artists — and, eventually, to set up permanent, accessible community centers as spaces where youth can come, create, share, and network, making their ideas a reality. With all of the instructors based in Lagos, it also makes logistical sense to continue focusing on the city’s more accessible communities, and Chessa says that the team is looking to launch initiatives in Mushin, Obalende, and Makoko.
“It is about making an impact in an environment of young people who are living at different levels of neglect, either by the government or by the general society,” said Ropo Enwenla, facilitator for theatre arts with BornTroWay, during the Ajegunle workshop.
“If we didn’t for once think that it was going to make a difference, then we wouldn’t have come,” Ewenla has said. “We believe that we have a package, that can, in all situations, when applied correctly, bring about social change, transformation, and positive development.”
To see BornTroWay Creative Project’s work in action, see the video of their work in Ajegunle:
In Port Harcourt, Nigeria:
In Durban, South Africa:
Paris, France
Favela Orgânica (“Organic Favela”) is an initiative launched in late 2011 by Regina Tchelly, who decided to share her love of cooking while improving nutrition and sustainable food practices among favela residents in Rio de Janeiro. Tchelly’s specialty: the use of natural ingredients that people generally discard, such as banana, watermelon, and passion fruit peels, carrot leaves, and cauliflower and broccoli stalks. Weekly workshops held in Morro da Babilônia, the favela in southern Rio de Janeiro where Tchelly lives, combine instruction in cooking, sustainable urban agriculture, and composting practices with meals featuring tasty, healthy dishes like watermelon peel risotto and banana and passion fruit peel cake. Learn more.
Among Latin American countries, Brazil has led the way in addressing climate change in the region, notably by creating a national public policy framework to guide priorities and interventions in the field. Some of the most relevant advances include the approval of the National Policy on Climate Change in 2009. In the same year, a National Fund for Climate Change was established allowing the allocation of resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Brazil has also moved forward in reducing the deforestation process of the Amazon forest and has been successful in developing and expanding the use biofuels, areas that have placed the country in the global sustainability spotlight. Learn more.
O Museu de Favela – MUF é uma associação privada sem fins lucrativos, de interesse cultural e comunitário que atua no museu territorial integral formado pelas favelas Pavão, Pavãozinho e Cantagalo. Desde sua criação em 2008 o MUF desenvolve processos museais experimentais de modos de trabalho inusitados, plantando novos paradigmas no campo da museologia social brasileira. A visão de futuro é transformar aquelas favelas em monumento turístico carioca. A missão do MUF é realizar tal visão de futuro, transformadora de condições de vida local, através da cultura, e demonstrar que a solução de inclusão funcional urbana e socioeconômica sustentável de favelas deve partir de dentro delas.
In little more than a decade, Catalytic Communities has become an active voice in promoting a more educated understanding of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. CatComm (as it is usually called), a nonprofit organization established in Rio in 2000, aims to integrate the favelas into the wider society and generate greater knowledge about their rich cultural and social value. To accomplish these goals, it actively promotes capacity-building initiatives among low-income community leaders and youth, as well as conducting neighborhood visits and research. Read and discuss.
Brazil’s fight against HIV/AIDS has been widely recognized as a success story. In the course of the worldwide, thirty-year battle against the epidemic, this country has managed to control the spread of HIV/AIDS with highly active and open preventive campaigns while providing universal access to treatment to all HIV/AIDS patients. The most important aspects of Brazil’s success in fighting the epidemic have been, first, the government’s strong leadership and support to HIV/AIDS programs, at both the national and the municipal levels; second, the active mobilization of civil society and non-governmental organizations, which have helped to promote support at the local level. Read and discuss.
Until very recently, only the better-off neighborhoods in Rio were able to explore local cultural life and entertainment options online. Today, however, it’s possible to get updated and geo-referenced information about the region’s history and cultural life, as well as where to shop and eat in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods — such Complexo da Mare, Complexo do Alemão, Santa Marta, Pavão Pavozinho, and Cidade de Deus. All this is possible thanks to an initiative called Wikimapa, created in 2009 by Rede Jovem, an organization that has been working for more than 12 years to promote social inclusion among low-income adolescents though the use of technology. Read and discuss.
Vidigal, a low-income neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro’s Zona Sul, is enjoying an important economic and cultural transformation. One of the most inspiring projects contributing to that change is Sitiê, an initiative started by three neighborhood residents who decided to recover 300 square meters of a former garbage dump and transform it into a park. Sitiê has expanded, with a small orchid vivarium and a room for recycling trash; the most impressive thing about this initiative, however, is that it is based entirely on neighborhood support and collaboration. Read and discuss.
Seeking to address a growing need for vocational education in the favelas and to reduce the digital divide between the formal and informal city, the Developing Minds Foundation (DMF) has been working in Cidade de Deus, Rocinha, and Mangueira since 2006, partnering closely with local community-based organizations to apply their extensive knowledge of each neighborhood’s conditions and needs. Learn more.
It has been hard to miss Rio de Janeiro’s changing approach to public security — the “pacification” of urban territories previously governed by drug-trafficking organizations. In just under four years, Rio’s policia de pacificação (“pacification police”) have installed 26 pacification police units, affecting more than 300,000 people, in the low-income favelas where state presence has always been tenuous. The permanent presence of the police denotes a new kind of governance that provides public services to what were once deemed ‘illegal’ communities — which not only has enhanced feelings of security, but also has fostered greater connectivity between the oft-excluded poor and the state, reducing urban disparity in the process. Learn more.
Rio de Janeiro’s informal settlements, or favelas, have enormous infrastructure gaps that range from the need for better roads and sewage systems to lack of access to water and electricity. In 2010, Rio’s Municipal Housing Secretariat launched a new municipal upgrading program, known as Morar Carioca, at an estimated total cost of US$4 billion, aiming to urbanize some 250 of Rio’s favelas through 2020 as part of the legacy of the 2016 Olympics. Such a goal seems idealistic, but given the city’s operational experience in the implementation of Favela Bairro, it may actually be achieved. Learn more.
Individuals, organizations, and governments around the world are developing creative ways to promote and uphold the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In recognition of Human Rights Day on December 10th, this conversation highlights solutions to issues ranging from discrimination against refugees to lack of access to sanitation. These solutions — which include online monitoring systems, a thriller feature film, in-home toilets, and activist photography — raise awareness and provide much-needed services for vulnerable communities. Read on to find out more about these initiatives from Nairobi, Jakarta, Dhaka, and Mumbai, and then share your thoughts in the discussion below.
While Eastleigh, a neighborhood in the east of Nairobi that houses most of the city’s Somali immigrants, has borne the brunt of most of these attacks, residents have also experienced a rise in hostility from local Kenyans and harassment at the hands of the police.
In an attempt to address these three symbiotic challenges, a movie is currently being produced by Cultural Video Foundation (CVF), a Nairobi-based film production company that is run by Cavallo and fellow-filmmaker Alessandra Argenti, with the support of an Italian NGO called the International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP) and funding from the European Union.
In Cavallo’s view, in order to prevent future terrorist attacks in Kenya and Somalia, it is essential to find a way for refugee communities and the police to work together on reporting suspicious activities and building trust where at the moment there is none.
Wazi FM was initially conceived as a twelve-episode TV series. Unfortunately, due to budgetary constraints, this was later cut down to a one-off feature film. CVF remains optimistic that they will succeed in broadening the reach of the show and that at some point it will be picked up by a local television channel brave enough to broadcast such a controversial message, or by an international distributor that is keen on covering sensitive topics of this kind.
The Wahid Institute (WI) berdiri tahun 2004 yang dibentuk sebagai upaya menyebarkan pemikiran islam moderat mantan presiden RI K.H Abdurrahman Wahid dalam mendorong terciptanya demokrasi, multikulturalisme dan toleransi baik di Indonesia maupun di dunia. Beberapa program yang menjadi wilayah kerja WI adalah advokasi kebijakan publik dan minoritas; kampanye islam demokrasi dan pluralisme; pemberdayaan akar rumput; serta monitoring isu keagamaan. Dalam hal monitoring isu keagaan ini WI telah mengembangkan pernangkat lunak untuk memantau isu-isu kekerasan dan konflik atas nama agama bernama Pemantauan Kebebasan Beragama dan Berkeyakinan. Kategori yang terangkum dalam perangkat tersebut termasuk diantaranya intoleransi dan diskriminasi atas dasar agama; kemajuan jaminan perlindungan kebebasan beragama/berkeyakinan serta pelanggaran kebebasan beragama/berkeyakinan. Jadi pada dasarnya perangkat ini bukan hanya melaporkan tindak kekerasan dan pelanggaran dalam beragama namun juga mencatat inisiatif-inisiatif masyarakat yang berupaya melindungi kebebasan masyarakat dalam beragama dan berkeyakinan.
রোহিঙ্গা উদ্বাস্তুদের প্রতি ঢাকাভিত্তিক সরকারি প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বিতার মুখে কিছু সৃষ্টিশীল সচেতনতামূলক পদক্ষেপ নেয়া হয়েছে। বিশেষ করে ফটোগ্রাফির মাধ্যমেএকটি বিশাল প্রচারণা শুরু হয়েছে ঢাকা, বাংলাদেশের অন্যান্য অঞ্চল এবং সারা বিশ্বের মানুষের জন্য, এটি দেখানর জন্য যে রোহিঙ্গা কারা এবং এদের অধিকার রক্ষার জন্য কি করা যেতে পারে ।
বাংলাদেশের প্রায় সব রাজনৈতিক, অর্থনৈতিক এবং সংবাদমাধ্যমের মতে ঢাকা মানবাধিকার লঙ্ঘনের প্রতিবাদের জন্য আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায়ের কাছে একটি শক্তিশালী স্থান। প্রামানিক আলোকচিত্রী সাইফুল হক অমি ঢাকার বাইরে কাজ করেন এবং ২০০৯ সাল থেকে তিনি রোহিঙ্গা সমস্যার প্রতি মনোনিবেশ করেন। অমি নিজেকে একজন আলোকচিত্রী বলার চেয়ে সামাজিক কর্মী হিসাবে বর্ণনা করেন। এখন পর্যন্ত তিনি “বাংলাদেশে আড়ম্বরহীন রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থী বর্জন ও অস্বীকার” নামে একটি আলকচিত্রের প্রদর্শনী করেছেন। অমি বাংলাদেশের শরণার্থী শিবিরের এই সকল ছবি ব্যবহার করেন উদবাস্তু মানুষের জীবনের কাহিনী তুলে ধরার জন্য যারা নিজেরা নিজেদের কষ্টের কথা বলতে পারে না। উদাহরণস্বরূপ, সাম্প্রতিককালে তিনি এশিয়ান ইউনিভার্সিটি ফর উইমেন-এ (যেখানে ১৪ টি দেশের মেয়েরা পড়াশোনা করছে) তার রোহিঙ্গা শিবিরের আলোকচিত্রগুলো দেখান এবং বর্ণনা করেন যে কেন রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের সাহায্য করা গুরুত্বপূর্ণ এবং কেন এখানে আন্তর্জাতিক সাহায্য প্রয়োজন।
অমির কাজ দেখায় যে রোহিঙ্গাদের মানবাধিকার রক্ষা একটি চরম অস্বীকৃত সমস্যা এবং শহর কেন্দ্রিক এই প্রচারণা প্রমান করে যে এটির দ্রুত সমাধান জরুরি, যদিও এই প্রচারণা এখনো সরকারের সিদ্ধান্তের বিরধিতা করতে রোহিঙ্গাদের উপর উপযুক্ত রাজনৈতিক মনোযোগ আকর্ষণ করতে পারে নি। তারপরও সৃজনশীল উপায়ে রোহিঙ্গা সমস্যার সমাধানের চেষ্টা, যা অনেক নাগরিকদের দৃষ্টি আকর্ষণ করে, একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ পদক্ষেপ। বিশ্বের সকল আলোকচিত্রীরা এবং অন্যান্য মিডিয়ার সদস্যরা তাদের গৃহীত আলোকচিত্রসমূহ অন্যান্য প্রমান প্রদর্শনীর মাধ্যমে সংখ্যালঘু জাতিদের প্রতি বৈষম্যর বিরুদ্ধে কাজ করতে পারে যখন সরকার নীরব থাকে।
Photo credits: Saiful Huq Omi
What is the current situation in Mumbai?
