Barefeet!

At the end of the month I’ll be moving out of the house in Lusaka that I have been living in since September of 2006. I’m looking forward to moving in with a couple of friends, and also to not having to keep looking for housemates. I lived with many interesting people in this house, but many were short term volunteers, interns and researchers, so I often had a bedroom that needed to be filled. However, I will miss my comfortable house and interesting neighborhood. In particular I will miss the neighbor kids stopping by for visits and games.

Another great memory from this house is my previous neighbors. For my first year and a bit here, a group of young men (also the volunteer, intern and researcher lot) lived next door. Among these men was Adam, and inspired volunteer from Ireland. He arrived in Zambia at about the same time I did, with the idea of using his background in theater to help address one of the large social problems in urban Zambia – street kids. While I arrived in Zambia with a generous sponsor, he showed up just with his own savings (and perhaps a bit of money from some well wishers back home) and got started.

Adam quickly connected with a group of young men, many of whom had formerly been living on the streets, and started a theater project called Barefeet. They began writing and rehearsing a play that told the story of a village kid who comes to Lusaka and ends up homeless and on the streets. The work gradually evolved and developed as I observed practices in the back garden, and various performances around town.

Meanwhile, Adam and his group began doing outreach to street kids and also serving them in conjunction with other organizations that worked with street kids and other vulnerable children. They do arts workshops at centers throughout Lusaka and have started working in other Zambian towns as well. The group also started organizing an annual arts festival that gave kids a chance to have fun and show off their skills in song, dance, drama and acrobatics. It’s great fun. Barefeet also has now obtained some sponsorship for this and their workshops from Project Concern International, Africa KidSAFE and other organizations.

Last year in September all of the street kids were removed from a high profile intersection in Lusaka (in response to a visit by Laura Bush, Bill Clinton or some other dignitary…). I thought it was great to have them away from there and not see them sniffing glue and begging, but I wondered where they had gone. I soon learned that someone had volunteered to temporarily host them at their farm just outside of town until they could find placement in orphanages or other appropriate facilities. Then Adam and other Barefeet staff volunteered to stay at the camp with them! It was an impressive commitment given the issues of poor social skills, violence and addiction that had to be addressed. But they stuck with it (for 40 days!) and also worked with these kids on performance art so that they could be a part of the 2007 Barefeet festival.

The big new excitement for Barefeet is that their (young adult) theatre company has been invited to participate in the Contacting the World theatre festival in the UK in late July, as well as to perform in Poland and Ireland. They are frantically working on their new theatre piece, and also fundraising for the transportation costs for their group. They have planned various events including a Friday the 13th Horror night (which was very fun – including a performance of Michael Jackson’s Thriller), and an upcoming attempt to break the world record for the longest line of footprints. More donations, however, are quite appreciated. If anyone out there feels inspired, let me know. I can donate on your behalf and you can pay me back when I’m in Seattle in August, or you can make a deposit into my bank account in Seattle, and I can draw the money out here. You can also donate through their web site: www.barefeetthatre.org, but maybe just in the UK? For more information you can also contact Adam at: adam@barefeettheatre.org. Thanks!