Thursday, 18 February 2016 16:46

Theatre and Empowerment workshop for Kofinou refugee camp kids

 

 

January – February 2016

Rooftop Theatre Group is conducting theatre workshops for children at Kofinou Asylum seeker’s camp in Kofinou, Larnaca. The sessions started on the 20th of January and are taking place twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. There are approximately 30 volunteers recruited for this project: these individuals, coming from Rooftop member pool, but also from the communities on the whole of the island, share a common desire to donate their time and energy towards this activity. The volunteers are divided into groups, and each group is accompanied by a volunteer translator (in Arabic) who are essential to the smooth run of the project. Rooftop Theatre Group has recruited individuals from different walks of life and nationalities to participate in this initiative, Greek-Cypriots, Turkish- Cypriots, permanent or temporary inhabitants of Cyprus. There was an overwhelming response to our call from people wanting to volunteer from across the divide, which made us all very positive and excited for this endeavor.

The sessions take place for a little over an hour and the kids participating are from 6 years old to 14 years old. The children are eager to join in and they respond very well to the drama games and activities that are prepared for them. The activities are especially designed for developing: social skills, trust and self-confidence, boundaries, concentration as well as encouragement and team building. The workshops were planned by a team of 6-8 theatre professionals, theatre educators and long-time amateurs actors-activists over the course of 3 months, in collaboration with the various authorities and organizations (governmental and NGOs) present in Kofinou.

This is a pilot series of workshops that Rooftop will run with the specific group with the scope to expand to other to groups and ages in the future inside the community of immigrants on the island, in Kofinou or elsewhere,

If you wish to join a future endeavor, email us and/or join the Rooftop Theatre Group on Facebook for news.

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