Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
Posted to the web September 21, 2004
By Stefania Milan and Samuele Gabbio / Rome
The open-air stage of the Globe Theatre is surrounded by spellbound children: Pinocchio, the famous puppet created by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi, has become black.
Twenty children from Nairobi, Kenya, aged 11 to 17 jump from the street to the stage to perform a version of the story of the lying wooden puppet famous for its long nose.
When the music stops, children and adults from the audience invade the stage. "I liked it because they danced a lot," says four-year-old Maria Elena.
Her six-year-old brother Carlo Agostino is showing his Pinocchio book to a group of Kenyan children. They seem to understand each other despite the fact that he speaks Italian and they speak Swahili.
The 20 kids playing on the stage have been rescued from the violent and dangerous street life of Nairobi, and have been taught to act on stage, after being socially rehabilitated during the first part of the project.
They are from around 300,000 street children living in Kenya, more than 60,000 of them in capital Nairobi, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) reports.
The number is increasing 10 percent a year, according to the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN).
They are sometimes called "chokora" (garbage). They cannot afford to go to school and are often victims of violence. Many take on hazardous labour. Some are second or third generation street children.
"Lots of things changed in my life with the theatre. I was helped to meet my parents and go back home," says 17-year-old Nahason Mbugua.
"Before I did not use to go to school, but stay in the streets and sniff glue," Nahason says. "Now we study from Monday to Friday, and perform during the weekend."
Thirteen-year-old Onesmus Kamau says "theatre helped us to make friendship and learn to come together without violence."
Most of the young actors come from the streets of Dagoretti, one of 20 city slums that are home to about 250,000 people.
We involved the whole community in the project," says project manager John Muiruri. "We work in partnership with people, on the spot. People have a lot of resources and they must be able to address the problem of street children in their community."
Most street children abandoned their families, he says. "We help them to find their relatives. Then we make partnerships with schools and communities to open some opportunities for them."
The project is part of the Dagoretti Children in Need programme promoted by the Kenyan section of the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), a Nairobi-based non-governmental organisation promoting health services in Africa.
'Black Pinocchio' is pretty different from the original version of the tale. It has been rewritten by young actors with the help of Marco Baliani, an Italian actor who volunteered to direct the theatrical-dance production.
The Italian background turns into an African contest: in the Land of Toys - a kind of children theme park where Pinocchio goes instead of going to school - children can play football all day long, with real football shoes.
"Thanks to this experience, now they know that they are people with duties and rights," Muiruri says. The performance ends with the former puppets become children with flesh and blood saying their names and showing their new passports.
The music stops and the theatre lights switch off. It is time to go back to Nairobi.
SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200409210020.html
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