In June 2006, three member of OYO youth groups and three OYO staff members left Namibia to travel to the UK, five of them for the first time in their lives. The occasion? An exciting cultural exchange programme with British NGO LiveEd, that saw them take part in a performance for the Newham Arts Festival, at the Barbican in London.
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Joshua,Mathilde and Julien with Racheal from LiveEd, London. |
Philippe Talavera, OYO's Director, together with other staff members Evelina Ashipala and Matias Kamati and youth group members Steven Mujamba, Ivan Mueze and Mona Ganases, left on 10 June. The aim of the exchange was to share knowledge and skills with young people at NewVic College in east London, and to learn skills which they could then pass on to other members of their groups and within OYO.
The group arrived in London, and were instantly swept up in the hectic pace of life in the UK's capital city, and learned to travel by what Evelina now calls 'The London Walk'. In Namibia, things move more slowly and the pace of life is quite relaxed. On this trip, however, the group found that they had to pack so much into the day, and travel around so much by bus, tube and train that they did not stop from the minute they got up to the minute they fell into bed.
During the exchange, the group worked with a number of people, including a drama group at a local primary school, where Fly and Mona helped some of the young actors with voice exercises. Steven, who is a member of the Opuwo Youth Group, and is a dancer, took part in a street dance workshop, and taught British students some dances of his own.
They also became involved with the Solid Harmony choir, and students from schools all over the borough of Newham that were part of the 700-strong choir that performed at the Barbican at the culmination of the festival.
The group were shown around the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, and Sadlers Wells Theatre, and took in performances of Kabuki theatre and an opera - Cosi Fan Tutte, to give them an experience of different forms of performing art from around the world.
Fly and Mona also performed the Hostel Monologues to a group of students, and sparked some interesting debate, where they found to everyone's surprise that issues that affect young people in Namibia are no different to those that affect young people in the UK.
Evelina and Fly also made a trip to the University of East London, although navigating London's confusing train system did not help them to find their way easily. However, once they were there, they had a crash course in video editing so that they could edit the video footage they took of the trip (which we will make available on this site very soon).
The group had a fantastic time, and came back full of energy and enthusiasm for using their new skills, and passing on what they got from the experience. We'd like to say thanks to the LiveEd team who arranged everything so well, and who extended such welcome hospitality to the group, for their first experience in a new country.
OYO is now looking forward to future exchanges in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, by which time it is hoped that there will be exchanges across Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas, making this a truly global undertaking.
We'd also like to extend a huge thanks to our donors - the British High Commission in Windhoek, UNESCO and Air Namibia - without whom this would not be possible
