If you’ve been following our facebook feed you’ll know that the Serious Fun community juggling workshops have begun in Yangon, led by Jules and Lin Thet Naing (who is doing a great job translating juggling terms and instructions) as well as training the young people.
The first workshop took place at Thanlyin Boys Training Center last week with a group of 20 boys. The Training Center is home to 150 boys aged from 6-16 who are are mainly orphans and children found living on the streets. They live at the center and attend school until they turn 16.
Second workshop on 22nd Decemeber – The Headmaster looks on
The boys have free time from 2.30pm to 5pm and Principal U Kyaw Oo is happy to host the weekly juggling workshop, as it gives them a chance to learn something new and fun. Eventually the kids will become teachers themselves and pass on their skills to the other boys. Jules has just run the second workshop there and is astonished how fast the boys are picking up all this juggling stuff.
Youth Leadership Project kicks off
This week we’ve done 5 half day workshops with the 33 children and young people taking part in the youth leadership project we’re running in conjunction with the Yangon Photography Festival.
This group is learning juggling and circus skills from Jules, and photography from reknowned Myanmar photographer U Kyee Myint. The setting is the beautiful garden of the Institut Francais de Birmanie (IFB), which hosts the Photography Festival.
These young jugglers come from four different organisations – Scholarships For StreetKids Myanmar, Ratana Metta Foundation, Shwe Minn Tha Foundation and the Save the Children demobbed child soldiers programme.
Firstly the kids take part in workshops in juggling, circus skills and photography over the next two months. Later on, the Photography Festival brings the fabulous Sangeeta Isvaran to the mix, culminating in an “Inner Light” performance on stage at IFB on February 13.
More regular workshops start soon in other locations around Yangon. Thanks so much to all the organisations and people helping to make all of this happen. Like Serious Fun in Yangon on facebook to follow the action.
