Report from Global Kids:

Nafsi Africa Acrobats Youngsters visiting september-oktober 2014

1: Summary

Nafsi Africa Acrobats is a social cultural project working with children and youth in the slums of Nairobi. A youth group from Nafsi visited Denmark in August- September 2014. Most of the time the group toured to schools in and surroundings. Generally the schools prepared the visit in advance focusing on international learning and intercultural competences. The schools also organized private accommodation in host families. Among the results were

• knowledge of Kenya and living conditions in slum areas • improved intercultural competences • strong bonds between Kenyan youngsters and families in Denmark • an insight in Kenyan culture

Statistics: During the four-week tour Nafsi • made 20 workshops at 13 schools and cultural institutions for about 700 children and young people • made 18 performances at schools and cultural institutions for around 2500 children and adults • lived in a total of 55 host families and got a few hundred new 'parents' and 'siblings'.

2: Background:

Global Kids in Denmark (a SPOR Media project) organized a tour for nine youngsters and three coaches from Nafsi Africa Acrobats in Kenya. SPOR Media established contact with the group in 2013, when four adult members from Nafsi toured in Denmark invited by the circus school Circus Tvaers in . Our German partner KinderKulturKarawane agreed to include Nafsi in this year’s SCC (Strengthen Creative Cooperation) and apart from Denmark, the groups visited Germany and Bulgaria.

Unlike previous groups who have visited various municipalities, primarily in North , Global Kids this year focused primarily on Kalundborg Municipality. There are at least three reasons: • Kalundborg’s children culture consultant Søren Wind offered to ensure the involvement of 10 schools. • Kalundborg Municipality is together with SPOR Media the Danish partners in SCC involving NGOs and municipalities in five European countries. • Since 2003 SPOR Media and Kalundborg have cooperated to develop a concept for school involvement.

In addition to financing from the EU and Kalundborg Municipality, SPOR Media this year tried to fundraise from national organizations and local companies and foundations – without success. Nevertheless we managed to get sufficient funding from a few organizers outside the municipality.

SPOR Media also received support from Danida to produce short films about the young visitor's daily life in Kenya as well as a photo exhibition about “African Mega Cities”.

3: “The before” - preparations:

Contact the schools: In January 2014 Søren Vind contacted the schools. If they would join the project it was expected that they would engage themselves in : • selecting a group of teachers and pupils who would participate in preparation, visit and evaluation • devote time to preparing pupils and work with intercultural competences • allow two days for the actual visit • organize private accommodation for the guests • participate with at least one teacher in a preparatory seminar in May 2014.

Preparation Seminar May 20, 2014 (see program): Nine of the ten schools in Kalundborg and a school from Odsherred attended a one-day seminar with a total of 30 participants. At the meeting:

• Associate Professor Lilian Rohde gave a presentation on the need to prepare our students to internationalization and the global meeting, and she came up with practical ideas for teaching. • Ethnologist Jan Steen Jacobsen gave inspiration for how Danish teachers and pupils could teach Danish culture and heritage to the visitors. • SPOR Media showed the new documentary "Breaking barriers - on tour with Teatro Trono" produced by two young Bolivian filmmakers in collaboration with SPOR Media. The film follows a group of young Bolivian actors from Bolivia to Kalundborg and back again in 2013. • Four members of Nafsi’s adults (touring in Denmark) gave an introduction to Nafsi’s work in the slums of Nairobi and practical advice prior to the visit.

Immediately after the seminar some of the schools began to prepare the visit and to find host families.

Information materials: Prior to the visit SPOR Media produced: • Three newsletters with information about the group, tips for host families etc. • A folder (edition 3000) "Acrobats from Kenya" with information about the members of the group coming, Nafsi in Kenya, workshops, performance and programme. • A poster for the performances. • A website with all information. • Nafsi in Nairobi produced for SPOR Media seven short video clips about seven of the eight young people coming to Denmark. • With photos and texts from the Kenyan photojournalist Felix Masi SPOR Media produced a photo exhibition: "African mega cities". • Global Kids on Facebook

Evaluation forms: Before the visit Global Kids distributed a proposal for an evaluation form to the participating schools . The idea was that the students before the visit would reflect on their own expectations and prejudices, and thus be more aware of their own learning during the visit. The form is therefore divided into a 'before', ' during ' and 'after'.

4: Preparation at schools

It varied considerably how much priority schools gave to the preparation before the visit.

Example Løve School: Before the summer holidays the teachers decided, that the visit should become part of a feature week. involving all children at the school: "First of all the meeting with another culture is important in it self, but also the spin-off benefit is important as children will become aware of the importance of learning other languages and even communication without languages," explains the responsible teacher about the priority given by the school.

She made sure that all colleagues were regularly informed regardless their involvement during the actual visit. Before the summer holidays the teachers oriented parents about the need for host families, and after two days 10 families had signed up – enough to host everybody. From her knowledge of the families the teacher decided who should stay with whom.. "Before the holidays the families knew who they should host. The website with the seven short films helped to increase knowledge and a sense of ownership. Many felt they knew their guest before the person had actually stepped over their threshold. "

At Løve School the children worked with Africa and Kenya. The teachers had agreed on some general things, all children should know and other things that they were not supposed to know (e.g. perceptions of stereotypes).

"We put much emphasis on the cultural meeting being as dynamic as possible," says a teacher. ”(..) In our rural area we do not see many with other cultural backgrounds, and other cultures are new to many of our children. "

The pupils had many expectations and considerations before the visit. The teacher reflects: "They were tense; looking forward; wondering if they could communicate,; do they really have no families; slum contra ghetto; do they steal; might be a little embarrassed about our wealth; schooling; they are just as many in one class, as we are at the entire school; when we see the film clips we realize how lucky we are; what will we learn; what can we play together; what do they eat; it must be hard to be away from home for that long; excited to have them staying at home; to show the guests tour daily life and leisure activities."

During the thematic week the kids did different exercises to become more aware of themselves and their own culture. They talked about cultural differences and prejudices and found information about Kenya. They talked about the exhibition, ”African mega-cities", which was exhibited at the school. Furthermore they trained songs to perform once the guests had arrived.

Example Buerup Skole: Before summer holidays the school wrote to the parents to find host families. The school put emphasis on the need for parental involvement in order to help the school to become able "to give all students a completely different experience." Quickly six families had signed up, enough to accommodate all guests .

At the start of the new school year teachers cooperated to plan the lessons. They made good use of the materials from Global Kids. "So it was a relatively easy task to plan the course of the events. At the same time we were lucky also to have the photographic exhibition at the school," says the responsible teacher.

The school had set aside two preparation days for the entire school, where students watched movies about Kenya and worked in groups to find information about Kenya. They made flags and other creative things, and the school buzzed with expectations.. When the children went on weekend just before the guests arrived there was a special atmosphere which was best described by one of the pupils: "I can hardly wait for Monday. Then the Kenyans will come".

Evaluation: Some of the teachers used the Global Kids' evaluation form, where the children were asked about their expectations. They expected e.g. to become friends with some of the Kenyans ("but not BF = best friends. As you become mega sad when they leave").

5: ”The during” - visit by Nafsi Africa Acrobats Youngsters

As part of this year's Global Kids the group made workshops and performances in Vollsmose Cultural House in Odense and Nyborg Efterskole as well as performances at Aeronautical day in Avedoere organised by the the Circus Museum in Hvidovre.

In Kalundborg Municipality the group visited • 7 elementary schools for two days with workshops, performance and "cultural exchange" • 3 elementary schools for one day with workshops and performance • 1 day at the high school with performance, dance workshop and introduction to Kenya for students of 'the Kenya team'. • Public performance at the Music School with about 250 spectators (free access for host families) In addition, the group had two days at Odden School.

Global Kids on Facebook: Global Kids created a Facebook group with photos and/or video clips from almost every workshop and performance. The group had over 300 members and many more to follow each entry. Several of the entries had a range exceeding 800, for example. 250 'click' and 50 'likes'.

School visits: Most of the participating schools had prepared the pupils well before the visit, and the students were very keen to learn and to socialize when during the visit. Some of the schools had difficulties in finding accommodation or decided in advance not to search for accommodation. It turned out to be the same schools that did not give much priority to the preparation of their pupils. At these schools the group only worked for one day. The group was well received at Kalundborg Gymnasium (High school) where Nafsi both made performance and workshops and met in small groups with Danish students who are planning a trip to Kenya in the next school year.

At most schools, the group was in two days and activities can be divided into workshops, performances, cultural exchange and hosting.

Workshops: Nafsis workshops varied depending on the time available in schools and age groups of the pupils. In most cases there was a joint warming up with yoga exercises and games. Afterwards acrobatics, dancing and drum lessons. Several of the participating children were very happy doing the acrobatic part where they were challenged to exceed their own limits: "You did not know you could do such a thing" (girl 3rd grade). Others remember best the drumming and dancing workshop.

At the high school, all students preferred the dancing lessons. In the evaluations one of the students says: "I got a greater insight into African dance and how Kenyans are and I found it really exciting."

Performances: The group showed "The playground" - with acrobatics, dance and drums providing an insight into games and children's culture in the slums of Nairobi. The answers in the evaluation forms show that all were happy about the performance, and that it is one of the things the children will remember after the visit: "I have never seen anybody making acrobatics that well." (Girl 3rd grade)

Cultural exchange: Most schools took up the idea to convey parts of Danish culture for the visitors. It was a great experience for many of the pupils having to present something from 'our' lives and involve the guests . To many of them the cultural exchange (eg. the traditional game and song: "Bro bro brille") is something they will remember. Also the Kenyans will remember many things from its cultural exchange - not least the dish ”Burning love”, which they learned to do in a school kitchen.

At the high school the young Danes and Kenyans used time to talk together and found out that they have much in common. But there are also differences. One of the students said in an evaluation after the visit: "I have realized how well we are off here at home. They come from nothing and are so happy anyway. We should become better to appreciate what we have. "

Leisure time: Also time with Kenya outside in the classrooms has been important. For example, to play football together.

Hosting: Host families and guests managed in many cases to make close relationships in a very short time. At most places the Kenyans stayed for three days, and in most cases it was hard to say goodbye. Global Kids invited everybody to a farewell party in Særslev, where about 100 people attended.

Several of the children from host families mention in the evaluations the hosting as the best experience. They have felt privileged because they could get very close to the guests, and because their parents also got involved. They feel they have had more benefit from the visits compared to their peers.

In the evaluation the Nafsi Youngsters propose more time with each host family. Also many host families have expressed a with to host for more days, although they admit that they would probably not have agreed before they knew ‘their youngster’.

6. ”The after”

General evaluation: Both children and teachers put emphasis om the stronger language skills and understanding of what a poor country is. Students often think about social differences "that we are more spoiled" (girl 3rd grade). Some of the Danish students would like visit Kenya or a girl says "I want to go to Africa when I grow up and help them." The visit has helped to put our lives in perspective, and many of the students involved in the evaluations talk about the rich-poor issue. A girl (3rd grade) writes that she has learned to "see life in a different way - positive!"

Nafsi managed to reach all audiences regardless of age. For example a high school student tells about the lessons learned from the visit: "I have gained greater insight into how African dance and Kenyans are and I think it was really exciting."

The most negative comment from adults as well as children, as well as host families was that the visit was too short. Many of the host families felt that they only just managed to get a familiarity with the guests before they had to move again. Therefore they were happy for the opportunity for an extra goodbye at the farewell party on the last night.

Impressions from Nafsi

The tour to Europe also developed the young participants from Nafsi. For example one of the coaches from Nafsi told, that a 16-year-old former street child before departure not had shown particular interest in cooperating. On tour, however, he was smiling and positive.

In a final evaluation the Nafsi Youngsters highlights the following experiences and observations from the visit to Denmark: "It's been amazing to see how well we have been received" "Many have appreciated what we did. The kids appreciate what we teach them " "The children take our workshops very seriously" "The schools are good - here children do not wear school uniforms, but can go as they please" "Here children are free and can choose what they want to do" "People use machines - we use the hands" "They do not punish children with sticks" "Here is very clean and no street children". " is a lovely city made of stone" "Most schools appreciated what we did and it was very disappointing at one school where we were not allowed to use the school's drums in a workshop" "We have learned that we mean something to other people"

7. PR

Global Kids issued press releases along the way, and there were reports about the project in the following media:

Nordvestnyt: August 23 (previews) (regional newspaper) September 13 + online newspaper September 17 + online newspaper

TV2 East News: September 15 (after 2 ½ minutes) (Regional television)

TV Kalundborg: September 17 (local television) September 20

U-landsnyt: August 21

Global Kids Facebook site followed the young closely during the tour. Organizers in schools and cultural institutions mentioned the visit in their own media.

8. Future:

• Many children and host families still follow the Nafsi group via Facebook and communicate regularly with the Kenyans. • Several of the host families have expressed a desire to support the education of young people in Kenya, and we work with Nafsi to have made a kind of 'school fee fund'. • More children and young people from the host families have expressed a desire to visit their friends from Nafsi in Kenya. • Many children and adults at the Kalundborg region hope that Nafsi will return.