The Kuunganisha Project
During their travels to rural communities, a group of international artistes, who call themselves The 'ItinerAnts' came across one such impoverished community living in the outskirts of Dodoma, in the village of Ihumwa and Gairo in Tanzania and so they collectively decided to bring theatre and storytelling to uplift the children and the communities living there.
They chose to work with the Tumaini Foundation, founded by Tumaini Raymond Kivuyo, 36 years, who had experienced abuse and homelessness, on the streets, at a young age and had vowed to do her best to help children in the same predicament.
Among the Malaysians who joined Tumaini in this project were Shantini Venugopal and Susie Kukathas, led by UK artistic director Cinzia Ciaramicoli, who herself had lived in Malaysia for more than fifteen years. She had formed a strong bond of friendship with Shantini and Susie, with whom she had previously worked with in Malaysia.
Tumaini, on a short visit to Malaysia to gather information and resources for her foundation in Tanzania, shared with The Sun how the 'ItinerAnts' had brought hope through theatre to her poor rural community on the outskirts of Dodoma and also Gairo, two hours away.
'It was a wonderful experience for the whole community, who had never been exposed to music or the performing arts and for five weeks, we sang together, danced to the rhythm of drums, shared stories, and puppet shows, paraded the streets with giant insects, which we had built together and the children loved every minute they spent with us,' she said.
The 'ItinerAnts' came from Malaysia, UK, Canada, Brazil, Nigeria, Poland and Italy. They worked together to bring storytelling, painting, music, puppet shows and cinema to more than 9,000 people, composed of mostly children, the elderly and widows of the village.
Shantini who had taken on the role of 'Diva' in the whole project had travelled from Malaysia to work on the project together with the rest of the 'ItinerAnts'.
'It was one of the most fulfilling projects I have ever worked on,' she shared. Shantini herself has been a prominent figure in the performing arts in Malaysia since 1989.
Cinzia, who had travelled to Malaysia from the UK to be with Tumaini on her first trip to Malaysia, explained, 'Kuunganisha' means connecting in 'Swahili', which represents one of the dialects of the people in Tanzania.
'This project had effectively brought together and connected the poor rural communities in Dodoma and the surrounding areas and the culmination was the three-day 'International Children's Arts Festival', a series of workshops, which involved bringing together the local and international artistes to create a magical experience for the children,' she said.
'This was made possible by sponsors, and each of the artistes had worked hard to bring in sponsorship and finally we even managed to save USD400 that we donated to the Tumaini Foundation to pay for the schooling of Marietha, who was born with a disability, and had led an isolated life,' said Cinzia.
She also felt it was one of the best projects she had worked on and during her stay in Tanzania they managed to plant 19 fruit trees near schools in Ihumwa and Gairo in the hope the community would benefit in the long term.
'It was determination and passion that drove us,' said Cinzia.
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