Hi everybody!
Can someone help me with the cecking of this article?
Many many thanks in advance!
Chiara
GIE US PEACE
My action project took off in the bus, where the clan, composed of very energetic and active delegates, woke me up with crazy songs and dances. I felt comfortable since my first step into the summer complex. A very juvenile guy called John Nicolson welcomed me and my colleague Iva with a friendly smile and a cup of hot coffee, never to be refused in a cold and rainy day.
The ‘Gie us peace’ is a local authority funded project that brings together about twenty teens coming from the near most deprived areas. The young participants suffer from a lack of confidence and self-esteem due to their family backgrounds. They are involved in communication workshops and activities like craft works and music that give them the opportunity to overcome their fears in a secure and friendly environment.
The main aim of the project is the setting up of a group of youth-mediators, able to help their peers in their own community, something completely new in Scotland. To achieve its aims the organising team works in collaboration with people coming from different parts of the world, this year in particular with a group of drum performers from Ghana and Canadian people. They believe that a multicultural atmosphere is a fascinating way for the youngsters to discover that there is much more going on for them away from their disintegrated backgrounds. They should take this opportunity.
We met Steven, a Canadian Indian with a strong personality and a fascinating story who runs a workshop about the Indian lifestyle. “In our culture we don’t take anything for granted and we pray every single elements of the nature’ he said a little bit ill-at-ease in front of our camera. ’You have to bear in mind that since you were born you are just walking to the end of your life. We don’t have time to waste’.
We experienced personally how the cultural melting-pot works! We passed from a purification ritual through a drum lesson and we saw our delegates getting on really well with the teens eager to know as much as possible of their lives.
‘We have never had people like that here; the delegates of the WYC are vibrant, positive, inspiring people’ told us John’. The young people are getting incredibly confident. They start thinking they can make changes. I am proud to be here. If the rest of delegates in Stirling is like these guys you will do a great job’.
We ended up our day with a crazy drum performance where even my colleague and I could not avoid to leave our cameras and join the group. There was really something magic in the air. The spirits of our fathers were dancing with us in that small village absorbed in the simple beauty of nature showing us that living in peace is something easy.
Chiara