SOCIAL CIRCUS & CIRCUS EFFECT

AN AID PROGRAM FOR REFUGEES

EU PROGRAMME: Ka 205
PROJECT NUMBER: 2015-3-TR01-KA205-024571
PERIOD: 2014 to 2018
FOCUS: Cultural aid and education program
TARGET GROUP: Refugee children and young people
LOCATION: Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq
PARTNERS: 8 partners see below

SOCIAL CIRCUS & CIRCUS EFFECT

Conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa prevent more than 13 million children from attending school and have shattered their hopes and futures. Due to war, the journey into exile and the transition to a new life, many refugee children miss out on access to education for months or even years.

Refugee children and young people grow up in third countries predominantly without access to education and with considerable restrictions on their personal development. As cheap labor or with “child marriages”, they have to provide for or secure their families. In addition, they lack educational opportunities at school or are unable to participate in such opportunities due to trauma-related disorders.

With the “Circus-Effect” project, together we can contribute to a better future for the region and offer thousands of children new prospects.

COMMUNITY OF EXPERTS

The organizations behind “Circus-Effect” are united in a community of experts who carry out social circus activities and theater education for and with young people in crisis regions. The “Circus-Effect” is a cooperation that is committed to reaching even more children and young people affected by war and flight.

“Social Circus” includes circus performances and lessons using circus, theater and music techniques to create alternative living spaces in which participants can experience themselves differently. These open spaces promote social skills and social change at an individual, community, regional and global level.

PEDAGOGY

Social circus education is not about becoming a circus performer, but rather about learning key skills such as the ability to learn, effective communication, effective teamwork and creative problem solving. and creative problem solving, as well as imparting knowledge of principles, rules and social values.

In the war zone, “Social Circus” is a good vehicle for alleviating war trauma and discharging the tensions that arise in people forced to live in dangerous overcrowded camp space. Effects of exposure to war-related factors influence the child’s personality structures, identity formation, adaptive and coping mechanisms, internalized norms of right and wrong, mechanisms for balancing aggressive impulses, and habitual ways of relating to others. Through cultural activities – drawing, playing, painting, designing, juggling, drumming – we create opportunities to express pent-up tensions that arise from the experience of conflict and are associated with their stress and loss.

“Social Circus” is important for the development of a healthy mind, body and personality.

LEARNING FOR THE FUTURE, FOR LIFE

The implementation of “Social Circus” is all about the “Circus Effect”. The “Circus Effect” enables them to experience joie de vivre, social skills and trauma education. The cultural-creative and trauma-educational measures reach children and young people in particular. Their experiences have a lasting and positive impact on their families and society.

These children and young people should later be able to contribute to the reconstruction of their country as future craftsmen, teachers, nurses, doctors, architects, musicians, scientists and technicians in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Libya or Yemen.

“Social Circus” initiates the first steps towards a self-determined social life and participation.

The international focus is currently still on Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. The focus is on the development of a coordination center and a professional organizational structure for the sustainable implementation of “Social Circus in crisis and war zones” and the development of working materials, training and methods of “Circus Effect”.

COORDINATION

The association “dieKunstBauStelle e.V.” accompanies and supports the expert community and its activities of “Social Circus in crisis and war zones”.

THE NETWORK

1. Her Yerde Sanat Dernegi (Art Anywhere Association), Turkey Art Anywhere Association
2. Afghan Educational Children’s Circus (AECC), Afghanistan www.afghanmmcc.org
3. Mobile Mini-Circus for Children (MMCC), Afghanistan www.afghanmmcc.org
4. Die Stelzer – Theater on stilts, Germany www.CulturalRelief.org
5. Nomadways, France www.nomadways.eu
6. Goethe-Institut, Istanbul Goethe-Institut Istanbul
7. Art Eye, Poland
8. dieKunstBauStelle e.V., Germany www.dieKunstBauStelle.de

The organizations bundle the various experiences and possibilities of “Social Circus” in war and crisis areas,

PROMOTION OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS 2015-2018

With funding from the European Community and the “Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships” program, the exchange of experience and the conception of Social Circus in crisis areas is being promoted for sustainable implementation and expansion. In preparation, the experiences from the last 15 years are to be summarized for the production of training material – video and online courses. To this end, additional trainers, “joymakers”, will be trained and further multipliers will increase the number of children and young people reached.

VISIONS 2017 TO 2020

The results of the strategic partnerships are visions of how the measures can support up to 35,000 children and young people per year. This will take place somewhat differently in the respective countries (Turkey, Afghanistan and Iraq). However, there is a common vision of how this can be achieved. The focus is also on helping people to help themselves by training refugees to become coaches.

The program comprises eight core areas

1. Establishment of a central coordination office for the program in Germany
2. Annual conferences for the exchange of experience, professionalization and development of the “Circus Effect”
3. Production of multilingual teaching materials, videos, tutorials, online courses that enable easy access and further training
4. Organizing office, workshops and trainer training of “Joymakers” in Turkey
5. Organizing office, workshops and trainer training of “Joymakers” in Iraq
6. Organizing office, workshops and trainer education of “Joymakers” in Afghanistan
7. Install “fun containers” and “edu-containers” as socio-cultural shelters. These are converted transport containers that are used as cultural and social spaces in settlements and camps. Three containers with appropriately trained staff and trainers are to be built in each country every year.

By training local multipliers and setting up the cultural stations, the impact of “Social Circus” can be increased at least tenfold.

EVENTS OF THE NETWORK 2017

• Lecture, films and reports February 16, 2017, 19:00 Landsberg am Lech: Social Circus In War Zones
• Exhibition February 15-21, 2017, Landsberg am Lech, Foyer Historic Town Hall
  HOPE INVESTING | GIRLS FROM MOBILE MINI CIRCUS AFGHANISTAN Motlaq Nafise
  CULTURAL RELIEF PROGRAM -TRAINING THE TRAINERS Wolfgang Hauck, Leonard Mandl
• 2nd International Conference, Istanbul, April 11-16, 2017
• Afghan Circus Festival, Kabul, Afghanistan, study visit August 6-12, 2017
• Circus Festival Mardin, Turkey, study visit 15-24.9.2017
• 3rd Transnational Conference, Mardin, 2018
• Concert and event Mardin 2018
• Concert and event Munich, May/June 2018

PROJECT WEBSITES

www.CircusEffect.com

www.culturalrelief.org

RADIO

16.2.2017 BR2 kulturWelt Cultural ambassadors in a war zone. A contribution by Joana Ortmann.

PRESS ARTICLE

20.2 2017 Landsberger Tagblatt “They want to help children in refugee camps”

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS