Dear Dramatic Need child. You have given a lot of thought to this drawing. You have used both hands to make it this good. You have taken your time to put colour to it and now I challenge you to make it.
It is important for our children to learn the principle that for anything to be properly made there is need to finish it first before one makes it. This might not make sense when we first read it but it makes a lot of sense when we go back to it with much thought. It speaks to the need for the DESIGN stage to any form of making. When we design we imagine and draw what we want to make. We scheme what we are going to make and give it its imagined features. What is made without drawing or designing might lack certain features that the benefit of design would have given it.
When people go wrong in execution, they talk of ‘going back to the drawing board’ and this always implies work and a lot of work. It means things are not working and we need to put thought to it and go back to the scheming stage.
When properly drawn and designed, the making stage swift sails and is more exciting. So Our children at Dramatic Need are excited about going to the second stage of our art, craft and story telling project which is the crafting stage. We now want to make objects out of what we have drawn.
So we are making use of different forms of materials and we are grateful to anyone out there willing to donate any material we may use.
“There is a growing recognition that working therapeutically in schools with children who have special educational needs or challenging behaviour helps problems associated with LOW SELF-ESTEEM, POOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND UNRULY BEHAVIOUR.” — Caroline Casey and Tessa Dalley
Three Peaks and a Wedding!: A huge week for our amazing trustee Phil Drew - not only did he commit to climbing the three peaks in aid of Dramatic Need, but his lovely girlfriend agreed to marry him! That’s a wedding and an engagement in the DN team in 6 days! Can you feel the love? Help spread that love by supporting Phil’s quest (and Dramatic Need’s work) by donating £5 to his three peaks challenge!: http://www.justgiving.com/PHIL-DREW
He’s not got far to reach his £1000 target!
He really deserves it after one heck of a week….
The Dramatic Need team would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to our South African Operations Manager Bhekilzwe Ndlovu who this Saturday will marry his great love Mpho in a traditional Tswana ceremony in the North West Province. Bheki and Mpho, we wish you every happiness - both on Saturday and in the future!
Please like this post to send your well-wishes!
Our Art, Craft and Story telling project takes another step this week and the next week as the Dramatic Need children begin to create craft work out of their pictures.
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“What is learnt in pleasure stays as a treasure” — Hogttes
Our children are not without desires and aspirations. When asked to draw their story they tell their deep seated desires; to hit the winning line and emerge a winner. No child anywhere in the world does not want to win.
Dramatic Need attempts to make these children not only draw their dreams but to make them believe they can pursue them as well.
“The analogy of art being a bridge between inner and outer worlds is sometimes used by art therapists to describe their role as mediator and to describe the function that a picture can have, holding and symbolising past, present and future aspects of a client, linking unconscious to conscious imagery.” — Caroline Case and Tessa Dalley
Counting Our Losses
Objects can be used to trigger conversations within ourselves. Things we might have thought were just litter needing to be picked and thrown into the bin may turn out to be the very stimuli we needed to remember, think, consider, reflect and learn.
Counting our losses is a Community Capacity Enhancement tool used by practitioners to trigger thought about those we might have lost due to HIV/AIDS. Participants walk around and pick objects of their choice and place them anywhere at the centre. They pick as many objects as there are people they remember who died of HIV/AIDS. After placing these objects there is a moment of sitting with what comes to our hearts and minds and we begin to process our issues. It is a beautiful process of remembering and dealing with issues.
Students at Dramatic Need took some time to remember. They picked stones, leaves and sticks which represented those they loved who have passed on.
“Engaging in the process of art provides the possibility of a more spontaneous, non-verbal means of communication through which children can express many of the difficulties with which they are struggling” — Mathews, Burkitt and Newell
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The hand, apart from being the most shy part of the body is the most active. This is demonstrated by the many phrases and idioms in most languages around the hand as a part of the body. People talk of ‘my hands are full, he is a handful, he manhandled me, a bird in the hand, a helping hand, be in safe hands, be out of hand, bite the hand that feeds, hand in hand, hand in glove, hands are tied, have clean hands, right hand man etc.
Our activities at Dramatic Need are helping children use their hands to benefit themselves and those close to them. Some silencing environments and backgrounds render us bound and tied, hence we say, ‘our hands are tied…’The ongoing drawing project at Dramatic Need is untying the children’s hands to tell their stories through their hands.
“Almost everyone has used art as a child and can still do so if encouraged to forget about images having to be ‘artistically correct’” — Miriam Liebmann