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Objectives The foundation currently holds 4 projects in the most impoverished regions of Colombia plagued with violence, drugs and armed forces looking to recruit children as soldiers. The projects use the arts as therapy for children (through photography, music, capoeira, dance and fine arts) who have experienced extreme violence such as former child soldiers or displaced children and offers them an alternative to fighting and arms as well as reassures their attendance and performance level in school. FOTOVIVA CAPOEIRA CRIANCAS NATIVAS SINFONORTE THE TRANSFORMATION TOUR Colombian musician Cesar Lopez designed an instrument called the escopetarra, a guitar made from a decommissioned weapon once used in armed conflict. This symbolizes how a violent tool can be turned into an instrument of creativity and peace. Mr. Lopez holds workshops for prisoners, gang members and former combatants in Colombia as a U.N. Messenger of Peace. Donations to local NGOs will support programs that teach music to at-risk youth. A luthier will make an escopetarra from a gun used in each country’s conflict as a symbol of peace and the beginning of a movement toward transformation. The tour is scheduled to begin in January 2011 and will include concerts in the U.S. and Europe to raise awareness and funds. At each stop, Cesar Lopez and other musicians will participate in workshops with underprivileged youth to spread the transformation message. A video documentary following the tour will shed light on everyday life in war-torn countries and chronicle the world-music melting pot in the concerts.
• Promote the reintegration and inclusion of children who have been excluded, marginalised and traumatised by extreme violence and are vulnerable to recruitment by armed forces by using the arts as therapy.
• Assure their attendance and performance in school.
• Build leadership skills and community responsibilities.
• Keep children away from gangs, drugs and arms by offering them an alternative way of life.
• Avoid child recruitment and trafficking by lowering their vulnerability and offering them options to lead a positive life.
Fotoviva, meaning Photo Alive, is held in Ciudad Bolivar, one of the most impoverished slums of Bogotá. This photography program is designed to serve 80 children per year between the ages of 9 to 16 years old, 20 per trimester during 12 consecutive Sundays of 5 hours each. An exhibition of the children’s work is held at the end of each 3-month session.
Capoeira Criancas Nativas is held in three communities of Soacha, the second largest slum in Bogotá, populated mainly by forcibly displaced people.
Capoeira is a 400-year old martial art from Brazil that combines dance with agility and athleticism. CCN teaches the children leadership, a sense of belonging (to a family or familiar unit) and responsibility. This cultural martial arts program is designed to serve 210 children between the ages of 6 to 18 years of age during the span of a year. Classes will take place 5 days a week, 3 hours a day.
Sinfonorte, located in the slums of Cucuta on the border with Venezuela, is a music school designed for 300 disadvantaged students including displaced and demobilized children. This music therapy heals trauma and provides the possibility to be creative and express emotion non-verbally. Research done in war-affected countries shows that negative feelings experienced by children changed remarkably after expressive activities such as music, arts, writing and storytelling.
The Transformation Tour offers a simple message:
If a weapon that has killed so many people can turn into an instrument of music and produce such beautiful sounds, then a child scarred by violence can go to lead a positive life.
The Transformation Tour will hold concerts with local musicians in 13 countries affected by war (Brazil, Colombia, East Timor, Georgia, Haiti, Iran, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan, and Uganda).