Working with the children of Sidi Kaouki

Hi! I just arrived in the Edgeryders community, i was travelling in Morocco and i was welcomed in the house in Sidi Kaouki. I met amazing people and i had a great time.

If you came to Sidi Kaouki to work and engage with the local community, if you want to be a volunteer and
you love working with people of different cultures, I’d like to share some ideas with you, so that you can continue doing the work that others did before you arrive.

I had the privilege to spend around ten days in the OpenVillage house in Sidi Kaouki. Let me tell you some ideas that i have and share with you a part of my experience while living in Kaouki.

Education through art

Art is a bridge, a universal common language beyond words that we can use in order to work with people from different nationalities, cultures and ages.

Education through art means that the person that takes the role of teacher attempts to provide to the one who’s in the role of student with resources to stimulate their creativity, imagination and expression. Of course, there are many ways to achieve this educational goal, there is not one perfect way that always work, so to have flexibility and the capacity to adapt to different styles of doing things is very important when we interact with people we want to do activities with, those things that work in some environments and situations might not work in others, those things that work with some people might not work with other people. Anyway, I will share a few ideas and tips that you can implement, I hope these are useful for you.

Upcycling / Crafts

All around the Sidi Kaouki beach there is a lot of trash lying around, this is caused by both locals and tourists and is very bad for the enviroment. So we went for a walk to pick up some of these trash and we decided to turn this garbage into new things, and so we did this workshops with the local children to teach them how they can use the trash that is lying around and turn it into something they can play with. Also kids will learn the value of these materials, they will be more aware and specially they will have a good time during the creative process and afterwards. By making something with their own hands they will feel empowered, creative and they will have a new toy,

We did clubs for juggling with used plastic bottles and bamboo sticks and wallets with used tetra packs, packs of juice and milk. Kids engaged immediately and we enjoyed a lot creating together, they were really focused and at the end they seemed happy and satisfied!

Mandala drawings

Drawing and painting a Mandala is a therapeutic activity, because the person who’s making it focuses on the shape of the circle of Mandala and the details around it and enters in a state of serenity and concentration.

In order to do this with children start by showing them different examples of Mandalas and draw one yourself so that they can see what’s it like. Then draw a small circle in a blank sheet and hand it to each one of them, and they’ll pick up quickly, because Mandalas are archetypical images that belong to the collective subconcious, so everyone understands what they are, they’re like flowers.

Keep the creative flow!

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Well done!

lovely @Komitas … i really enjoyed your company in the house as well not only the kids did , … such a great musician and big heart which can accept and connect in the same time … i hope i can see you again soon and juggle together …,<3

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Wow Great job @m_tantawy :slight_smile: Chidren seem so happy and what a great way to engage young minds in fulfilled positive work. Nice mandala drawings. It really is healing artistic meditative process. Nice work

Hey this looks really good for the kids, for the town, for the environment :slight_smile:
Wondering about the hygiene: are there precautions or basic education incorporated about how to be on the safe side? Maybe a routine you could hand out, also if someone wants to do similar things elsewhere where chances are there is more conservatism and/or skepticism wrt hygiene?

@MonicaZacharia and @HadeerGhareeb I’m asking you too, since you have experience here…
Thanks.

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yes @noemi . Actually, after we collected the trash @Komitas cleaned them and let them be exposed to the sun, this should be enough I think since we don’t deal with infants and it is not an oral game.

Moreover, about the Challenges we had, We wanted to do this through the school at first but it is not easy to go through all the bureaucracy so we decided while we are waiting for the government permission to go and take the permission from the families themselves and set up the workshops in their houses.

First workshop, we went with some doubt if they will accept the idea and open their door to us and crazily it was so fast we didn’t need to explain so much. Second time we had the chance to even choose the house where we held the workshop.
I love setting the workshops at the house so much as it involves many people in different levels. For Example in the Mandala Workshop the grandmother, the mother, the aunt and the kids were all involved.

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Good job @Komitas
It is very beautiful to benefit from the children’s energy in creative artistic activities meanwhile it serves the environment. I,d like to suggest a paper recycling workshop with children. We can recycle paper into masks so children can color them

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Waw it is really a very nice energy and activities, well done!
It’s nice when you can involve children in projects and most of the time it’s adults around them that are learning the most!

Sending you my respectful and nice vibrations!
Choukran!

Olivier

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Great job @Komitas, I am so happy you are enjoying your time in Sidi Kaouki being useful to the community and sharing your positive vibes at the same time. Wish I was there! Keep up the good work! Big hugs xx

Good job guys :heart_eyes: . it was really a great idea @HadeerGhareeb to engage the local community and thank you for inviting the family to the house :slight_smile: this makes us sharing warm moments with the children … and getting a good dose of sincerity and joy that brought us to our childhood <3

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we had a great conversation about ICA Yerevan yesterday and @Komitas was talking about how he had a such a great time there. I must reply to your email and arrange my trip across. It has been a crazy few months with working and now i have some time to reflect and plan for the future.

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Awww, all these beautiful humans connecting in Morocco, my second home. This is just too cool! Looking forward to host you in Yerevan @alex_levene!

Much love to you, @Komitas and @hazem :four_leaf_clover:

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