We are in Roi Et in the northeastern Isaan region of Thailand, here to clown with the kids. Isaan is an impoverished area relying on rice crops and often facing drought or, conversely, flooding.
Background Information
School: Dondaen Konwaisamakee. The project is located in Roi Et province, Dindam subdistrict.
The children who will benefit from this program are from underprivileged families in the Roi Et province. Children face problems of poverty and some even to the point of being like an orphan where their parents migrate to Bangkok for work leaving them with their neighbors or their ageing grandparents. Students are often involved in working or harvesting to gain a small amount of money to get through day by day. The circus activity is another effective channel that can increase their income but at the same time give them a chance to exercise and practice their acrobat skills. Villagers participate with students sometimes, and the children create shows for the community in return for rice. Up until now, the income from these shows is sometimes more than harvesting where they do not have to face the problems of droughts or flood.
We will be doing workshops in the hopes of creating a permanent structure for using performing and circus arts as an educational tool or simply a way to build confidence and resolve feelings of isolation and abandon in youth cornered by complex problems such as poverty, human trafficking, war, and AIDS/HIV. A simultaneous project is being done in Sangklaburi near the Burmese border where artists are working with Burmese refugees.
Above information from Circus Action International.
More info can be found under “Circus Action International” at; http://www.jerrysnell.com/.
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