How an exercise or activity well focused can liberate a child and giving his own place in a group.
7-years-old Aristotle was one of 20 children who participated in the “Awlad” Workshop this year 2013 in Kinshasa.
Addressing the culture and habits of each child was impossible. What they had in common was the same age range, same country, the curiosity to taste new ideas for games and to be able to act.
Different activities are prepared to unite and harmonize the group. An approach to life through activities that reveal their inner richness and how to use this potential to better prepare for their future.
It had been 3 days since the Workshop had started and Aristotle refused to join the group. He stayed on the sidelines saying his knees wouldn’t allow him to run. He had stepped aside saying that his knees would not allow him to run.
– I don’t speak their language and my knees hurt – he said.
However, with the little French he knew, he could be able to communicate with the group. And some facilitators could understand him.
What is going through your head? Why this rejection! this isolation! I wanted to listen without forcing him to say anything.
Fourth day and there was an urgent need to discover this boy’s dilemma, what was keeping him apart from the group.
With the consent of the facilitator who is in charge of the “role plays”, Aristotle was chosen to be living puppet.
– Pick a partner to imitate a story you’re going to tell – Stéphane told him. And he explains that he is going to improvise whatever comes to his mind.
Aristotle sits behind the table, his hands in his shoes. Jacques, whom he had chosen to assist him, hides behind him and puts his arms in the jacket that covers them both.
And the story begins.
He spoke in Lingala (one of the 4 Congolese dialects) and gesticulated in all directions. By its history large and small seemed subjugated.
What is he talking about? I’ll find out later. Violence and revenge between the families and clans who had to mark him, even terrorize him. It felt like feeling heard and recognized triggered a liberating effect in him, he spoke for 20 minutes without stopping.
The story is over, a standing ovation follows.
Aristotle forgot his knee pain, he was jogging. No need to speak French, he spluttered and made himself understood.
The change continued to operate the rest of the days. But our amazement was even greater when, on the last day of the Workshop, the parents came to participate in the activities of their children, we had to open the two doors of the garden to let Aristotle’s mother pass.
She arrived in a wheelchair and could not afford to walk.
Aristotle walks up to her and helps us push her mother’s chair.
Norma Sfeir