DIOGEL ? / SAFE ?

"Diogel?/Safe?" is an exciting drama-based project that is running in Welsh schools from April 2002 to June 2005. Created by Small World Theatre (SWT) in partnership with Global Connections (GC) and Welsh Refugee Council (WRC)

"Diogel? /Safe?" is innovative in the field of refugee integration in the UK in the way that it focuses on encouraging host communities to support refugees.

What the politicians said in the houses of Parliament about Small World Theatre and this project

Julie Morgan (Cardiff, North) (Lab): "Is my right hon. Friend aware that
as part of Cardiff 2005, the Small World Theatre is going to primary
schools and secondary schools in Cardiff, particularly the Gabalfa
primary school and Corpus Christi school in Cardiff, North, helping to
promote understanding of what it feels like to be a refugee or an asylum
seeker in Cardiff today? Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is a
positive thing to do in the year when Cardiff celebrates 50 years as a
capital? What other things can he suggest to increase tolerance and
understanding of the diverse communities that we have in Cardiff?"
Mr. Hain: "I agree with my hon. Friend that Cardiff is a living symbol of
a culture that is rich with diversity, different ethnic groups and
different faiths. It is a city that is thriving and learning from the
different communities that exist together in a dynamic way."

Bill Hamblett and Ann Shrosbree from SWT and Dr. Sue Lyle from Swansea Institute of Higher Education present a summary of the project and evaluation to an all party group of Welsh MPs at the House of Commons on Wed 29th of June 2005. A report will follow on this site soon

Bill Hamblett, Julie Morgan M.P. for Cardiff North, Ann Shrosbree and

Puppets, Tamba and Sian

Watch out for additional performances and events in June around Refugee Week 2005

BELOW IS A HANDY LINK TO THE REFUGEE WEEK WEBSITE

Refugee Week

National Assembly of Wales Building 20th June. Report to come soon

 

SWT would like to thank the following organisations and agencies for their support with the Cardiff section of the Diogel?/Safe? project

Cardiff 2005, Communities First, Cafod, Arts Council of Wales

Cardiff Council, The Millennium Commission

Partners

The original funders logos are displayed at the bottom of this page. Thank you for your vision and trust.

From 2002- 2004 the project worked intensively with twenty-five schools and the wider communities that they serve in areas of Swansea currently, or soon to be, hosting asylum seekers.

Swansea schools that have participated

1st Cluster Town Hill , Danygraig, St Helens, Terrace Road, Gors,* Dylan Thomas Secondary School*

2nd Cluster Manselton, Waun Wen, Hafod, Brynhyfryd* Pentrehafod Secondary School.

3rd Cluster Bleanymaes, Clase,Cadle, Daniel James Secondary School

4th Cluster Cwm, Trallwyn, Pentrechwyth, Cefn Hengoed Secondary School

5th Cluster Pentrepoeth, Morriston Primary, Plasmarl, St Josephs R.C. Morriston Comprehensive School.

Also 9 schools in the Wrexham area and 5 schools in Bristol

* adapted process

With our partners the Welsh Refugee Council we staged a showcase for Diogel?/Safe? in Cardiff. We were pleased to have Edwina Hart A.M. speak at the event and answer questions from the participants. Dr, Sue Lyle presented a progress report on her extensive evaluation that was clear and informative. The delegates who stayed on in the afternoon took part in a participatory planning event facilitated by Bill Hamblett of SWT. From this inclusive process called " Stirring the Beans" we were able to gain a good insight into the needs of stakeholders in the Cardiff and Newport areas. This was a similar process to the original participatory planning event in 2002. ( see below) We are grateful to The Welsh Centre for International Affairs for funding this event. As a result the project has been extended into 2005 and many Cardiff and Newport schools will benefit.

Click here to view a synopsis of the play *

Small World set for Diogel / Safe? This 7ft globe rotates and reveals two stages for puppet characters

Small World Theatre’s initiative is targeting these communities in Wales by working through the schools as a route to the wider community. Working with refugee mentors and engaging the children in the real stories of asylum seekers settling in Wales has so far created rich and rewarding debate with primary and secondary schoolchildren. The young people have raised a wide range of issues covering areas such as governance, playground bullying, family values, safety and war.
An introductory performance by Small World Theatre opens questions that are unpacked through drama and classroom based sessions. The participatory drama process has been informed by research collecting stories of asylum seekers and refugees who have settled in Wales. The young participants are currently producing their own plays that will be performed to parents and other adults from the local community. There will then be an opportunity for discussion between the community audience and refugees and asylum seeker representatives from the locality.

The activities of the project include:
Research of stories of refugees who are settling in Wales,
*working with refugee mentors,
* the production of a performance interpreting the refugee experience for schoolchildren at KS2 and KS3,
* performances in schools to introduce the project,
* workshops using drama to explore issues raised by the performance,
* facilitation of young people to produce their own performances for the wider community,
* provision of opportunities for dialogue between refugee mentors and host communities,
* children’s rights workshops,
* participatory monitoring and evaluation of the process
* dissemination events,
* generation of positive media coverage.

* formulation with participants of a school policy for refugees, asylum seekers and newcomers to the school

The initial stimulus in each participating school is a performance by Small World Theatre using puppets inside a revolving set that is its own ‘Small World’. Introduced by a refugee mentor the story follows a young boy’s journey from West Africa to a playground in Wales. The play combines elements of different people’s recent experience seeking asylum in Wales including those of the current mentor’s own family that have been researched during the planning of the project.
After the performance there is an opportunity for the whole school to discuss issues immediately raised by the play. Children’s questions are searching and at times the mentor has been asked to reveal very personal feelings. He says however that " I don’t mind the children asking these things, they might have picked up ideas and prejudices from other people and they need to check out with me what things are really like on a personal level". Ann, Bill and Vanya, the SWT project team, have also learned a lot from the children’s questions. Ann remembers one occasion when the children asked how the mentor escaped and if he wore a disguise. He described dressing in women’s clothes and wearing lipstick to escape, "we were astonished, it was such an extraordinary image, we had been working together for months and had obviously not asked the right questions".
Following on with one year group in each school, usually years 5 and 8, a series of participatory drama based workshops with SWT and the mentor unpack themes and participants concerns and work towards the creation of the young people’s own plays interpreting the issues.
In addition to the drama sessions with SWT there are classroom-based sessions run by project partners Global Connections linking refugee issues to Children’s Rights. These sessions consolidate the children’s understanding and support the content of the drama work.

The Drama Workshops

There are on average 5 half day Drama Workshops in each school leading to a presentation to the community. These workshops provide relevant drama skills to enable participants to explore the issues and emotions surrounding the refugee experience. A lot of work is done during sessions on the body. Mime and body language analysis are often major elements in the process. Developing a sense of emotional intelligence is crucial to understanding the subject. Emotional engagement adds greatly to the process of informing the drama, this in turn stimulates the post show discussion.

IMPACT INTO THE COMMUNITY

Performances by the participant children to community audiences are taking place throughout this project. They take different forms in different schools. Mostly parents attend these events with additional members of the community and interested people from civic society. Sometimes questions from the audience are put to the children, to the refugee mentor, to teachers and to Small World Theatre personel. At other times we have found audiences more comfortable discussing the show and the issues with SWT members in an informal chat. and on some occasions the school will combine it with a coffee morning. In this case the refugee mentor, the rights workshop facilitator and SWT's drama team will take a table each and facilitate a discussion. After a certain time the team rotate to another table till each has had a chance to talk through the different aspects and perspectives.

Extras
An additional opportunity afforded by this project has been the design and delivery by SWT of an 11-session module for 4th year trainee teachers looking at language development with refugee stories as the focus. Introducing drama and movement or ‘body language’ as learning tools to support the development of an emotional understanding of the situation of others. While we work toward a commonly held knowledge as a positive outcome of this project we are using creative methods and encouraging the use of the children's imaginations.

" Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge points to all there is, imagination points to all there will be".

Albert Einstein

Positive media coverage is being generated and as part of this a 12 minute piece on "Diogel?/Safe?" will be included in "High Performance" a series of HTV arts programmes. A documentary team has been following the performance and workshop process and they have become engaged in the issues along with the children.

During Refugee Week on the 21st of June there was a public performance at the Patti Pavilion in Swansea involving all five participating schools from this first phase. Around 120 children played out the refugee stories they have been dramatising . There was an opportunity for dialogue between refugee mentors and the audience of stakeholders, parents and other community members at this event. SWT hope that through witnessing the positive attitudes the children have developed some sort of continuation plan will emerge from the adults to support the creation of a positive climate for asylum seekers and refugees in Swansea.

The work continues in Swansea and it is hoped that we will transfer the project, including our performance of DIOGEL?/SAFE?, to other areas of Wales until 2004.

Ps. for English and international readers of this item; diogel is the word for safe in the Welsh language.

Participatory Planning Day 22 Jan 2002

The DIOGEL?/SAFE? planning day was held at the Dylan Thomas centre in Swansea. The twenty five stakeholders who attended came from the education and community sectors, funders, refugee support groups, racial equality council and partners. After a welcome from Ann Shrosbree the day started off with a 4 minute performance by Small World Theatre using large scale puppetry to demonstrate the potential of the use of theatre in this project. Devised for the adult audience, the drama was said to be powerful and moving. The performance which will introduce the work in schools will be derived from research with refugees in Swansea and be appropriate for the young audience.

Eid Ali Ahmed from the Welsh Refugee Council ( WRC) spoke about their role as a partner and the scope of WRC's work. Cathryn Al Kannan of Global Connections spoke about their experience of the pilot project and their partnership in DIOGEL?/SAFE?. She also initiated a stakeholder analysis that helped those present identify themselves and their role in this planning day.

Bill Hamblett facilitated a process called 'Stirring the Beans', which proved to be a very effective method for getting input from a wide variety of people with diverse skills and experience. This technique was passed on to Bill in Canada at an 'Advanced Facilitators Retreat' in September 2001, by Ueli Scheuermeier from LBL, Swiss Centre for Extension, International Team. In this participatory exercise every one contributes, everyone listens, everyone understands what everyone else has said and all participants can help grow the project.

Stake holders opted in to support aspects of the work which were identified by the participatory process as important for sustainability but were outside SWT's current budget. The details of the proceedings are currently being digested and a comprehensive plan drawn up. This was circulated to all those who contributed for comments, before finalising the action plan.

Small World Theatre's background with refugee issues

In 1992 Bill Hamblett and Ann Shrosbree of Small World Theatre visited Hong Kong and worked as volunteers in the refugee camps and detention centres where many Vietnamese asylum seekers were held. Using theatre and puppetry to explore stories and share cultural forms they researched the refugee experience. This research continued in both North and South Vietnam while working with 10 groups in Ho Chi Minh City. SWT worked with a wide mixture of people including street children, social workers and disability groups. More theatre exchanges and a collaboration with the Hanoi Water Puppet Company informed the production of a performance for UK schools called moving!. The tour was sponsored by Save the Children and support materials supplied by The Refugee Council. The first Refugee Weeks in UK in collaboration with The Refugee Council and Save the Children formed around MOVING! in cities hosting refugee communities. This show is still remembered by many who were moved by it.

The original funders logos are below. More support is needed for 2005/ 2006, if you can help please get in touch, contact details at bottom of page.

	DFID mini Grants Scheme		OXFAM Cymru
Partners

 

Small World Theatre Canolfan Byd Bychan Bath House Road, Cardigan, Ceredigion Wales SA43 1JY Tel: 01239 615952 Fax :01239 615835 e mail info@smallworld.org.uk