What I will be doing…
In the summer I will be going to Cambodia for a two month trip to deliver two dance projects. The first, with a group of girls who were victims of sex trafficking in the country’s capital City, Phnom Penh with an organisation called Hope for Justice. Then I will also be working with a group of young disabled and non-disabled people to develop a performance piece with Epic Arts. . This trip will also give me the opportunity to research and understand Khmer culture and the value of art within Cambodia’s most vulnerable communities.
Caroline is going to Cambodia to deliver a dance programme for girls who were victims of sex trafficking and with young disabled people. She need your help to make this dream a reality!
Why it matters...
After the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979, when Pol Pot and his army took over the capital and sent everyone out to the fields to work in the rice fields. Anyone who challenged the regime was murdered. Teachers were killed, doctors, scientists were murdered, artists, even if you wore glasses, you were killed. Women were raped; children were brutally murdered while there family were made to watch. Between 1975-79 Pol Pot had killed 40% of his own people. Many were brutally murdered, many more died of starvation or disease.
40 years on and the country still wears the scars of what happened. In a country where there is so much poverty, little education and a new generation of young people who still live in fear of the horrors of what happened.
I will also be working with Epic Arts who are a NGO Charity organisation based in Kampot who provide inclusive arts education. They work with disabled and non-disabled young people and deliver inclusive arts courses and do some incredible work in challenging the perception of disabled people in the country and spreading the message that Every Person Counts Due to lack of art provision in the country means that the work that this charity does is both pioneering for the contrary and life changing for the individuals. . I will be working with their performance company as a guest choreographer to deliver a piece about communication. This will be a particularly interesting topic as many of the young people I will be working with are deaf. http://www.epicarts.org.uk/
In Cambodia there is a huge problem with girls being sex trafficked. These girls are very young and very vulnerable. However there are organisations working out there to change this. Hope for justice are an organisation that work with these girls in the country’s capital to provide safe accommodation, counselling and education. However they do not provide any dance training.
I aim to go and lead a dance intense project with these girls. The idea for this project is based on the work in Brazil with Meninadanca who have worked with vulnerable girls using dance as their primary tool for empowerment and education. They have seen dance change the lives of these girls in Brazil.
I will be delivering a dance course with Hope for Justice who are an organisation who work with young girls who were victims of sex trafficking to provide safety, counselling and education in the capital city of Cambodia .http://hopeforjustice.org/
I need your support…
To be able to go to Cambodia and deliver these dance programmes, I need the support from all of you. I need to raise enough money to cover travel, accommodation and living costs while I am out there. Without this, I won’t be able to fulfil this dream and deliver these projects in Cambodia.
Even a small donation will make a huge difference and bring me a step closer to changing the lives of some of the most vulnerable young people in Cambodia.