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Summary: SANA'A- The Ebhar Foundation for Childhood and Creativeness organised last week three-day form 24 to 26-1-2006 workshop in the Art of Puppet Theater. Twenty children from four child care centers took part in the workshop.
Balqis Jarmoon, a teacher in the foundation, said that the workshop was aimed at enlightening participants on the skills of the puppet theatre, teaching the children on how to make their own theatre, make puppets and use different voice effects - as well as writing stories. "We tried to focus on expressing the suffering of the children through puppet theatre", she said. Maha Naji Saleh, the Chairwoman of the Foundation, said that the workshop was funded by the United Nations' Children's Agency UNICEF, in coordination with the Supreme Council of Childhood and Motherhood. The workshop is a part of project started in 2005 to give children who have suffered from violence the space and freedom to express themselves through theatre. She said that the objective of the foundation was to enlightening people about the children right's agreement which Yemen had ratified, and encourage the creative development of children - as well as supporting talented youths by showing their work to others. "The foundation has held many programs since its establishment in 2002," she said, pointing to the Childhood Creation Festival project, and a drawing exhibition they ran. Saleh said that through the workshop "we hope children are able to inspire their creativity, and to express their suffering in drawing, photography, writing and playing in puppet theatre." The workshop also aimed to support efforts at protecting children from violence in school, home and in the street as part of the foundation's policy to help support children. "We hope that the workshop will be useful to children, and could enable them to enhance their creative skills in field of doll theatre," she said. Wail Al-Harpi, aged 13, said that the workshop had been useful to him. "I learned to mix two colors to create a new color, and learnt how to play in a puppet theatre, and how to move a puppet," Al-Harpi said.He said he would teach his friends in the care center to make their own puppet theatre. Mohammed Rassam, aged 15, said that he had learned how to make puppet theater through using simple materials, and thanked the teachers of the foundation for their work. Tawfiq Mohammed, aged 13, said that he had thought it is difficult to make puppet, but after he joined the workshop, he discovered it was easy.He said he could now make puppets and knew how to make his own puppet theatre. The workshop is only one of many activities run by the foundation. Last year, the foundation organized a photography exhibition displaying the artistic skills of children in the French Cultural Center in Sana'a.