This summer I returned from my travels round India with the charity Performers Without Borders. What great fun it was! I have seen so much of the world and been able to give back to some of the poorest communities I traveled through as well. PWB was set up but Matt and Johnny and has been going for 4 years now. We were only the third group to be representing this worth while cause.
Out Itinerary was to stay for a month at a time at three children's centres spread across India. SKCV centre and school in Vijayawade on the west cost. Asha Deep school in Varanasi on the banks of the famous Ganges and the Edith Willkins trust in Darjeeling, the hilly tea centre. I taught a variety of props over the three months and we helped the kids put on a show at the end of each project. For some of the children, it was the first time they had seen circus stuff, let alone tried it and for many of the children we taught it was an opportunity to enjoy their child hood. In many cases the children we were working with had been forced into slave labour, prostitution or just abandoned by their parents. But you wouldn't have been able to tell from the looks on their faces when we saw them!
Their agility, determination and bravery was wonderful to watch and I made some really heart warming relationships through teaching and playing. Each project had a distinct feel, some PWB had visited before, like Asha deep centre, where a few of the older kids actually tried fire spinning before we left! while others were completly new to the charities services as we took PWB into new territories. At the Edith Wilkins trust the staff were overwhelmed by our volunteer work, they had never seen circus before either!
As well as teaching, the group made a performance. We spent a few weeks before travelling putting a super show together, a roller coaster ride with tuc-tuc's.juggling waiters and unicyling policemen. We toured the show, performed it at each new location and even did a few extra public performances. In Darjeeling we performed on their public square, it was hard to estimate numbers but the crowd was well over 1000 and in Varanasi we performed on the banks of the Ganges!
This Month PWB are putting on some fundraising events in Liverpool and Brighton I highly recommend a visit. The acts will be slick, the cause a worthy one and you will have lots of fun.
Click here for the for the Brighton show
click here: for the Liverpool show.
xxx
Out Itinerary was to stay for a month at a time at three children's centres spread across India. SKCV centre and school in Vijayawade on the west cost. Asha Deep school in Varanasi on the banks of the famous Ganges and the Edith Willkins trust in Darjeeling, the hilly tea centre. I taught a variety of props over the three months and we helped the kids put on a show at the end of each project. For some of the children, it was the first time they had seen circus stuff, let alone tried it and for many of the children we taught it was an opportunity to enjoy their child hood. In many cases the children we were working with had been forced into slave labour, prostitution or just abandoned by their parents. But you wouldn't have been able to tell from the looks on their faces when we saw them!
Their agility, determination and bravery was wonderful to watch and I made some really heart warming relationships through teaching and playing. Each project had a distinct feel, some PWB had visited before, like Asha deep centre, where a few of the older kids actually tried fire spinning before we left! while others were completly new to the charities services as we took PWB into new territories. At the Edith Wilkins trust the staff were overwhelmed by our volunteer work, they had never seen circus before either!
As well as teaching, the group made a performance. We spent a few weeks before travelling putting a super show together, a roller coaster ride with tuc-tuc's.juggling waiters and unicyling policemen. We toured the show, performed it at each new location and even did a few extra public performances. In Darjeeling we performed on their public square, it was hard to estimate numbers but the crowd was well over 1000 and in Varanasi we performed on the banks of the Ganges!
This Month PWB are putting on some fundraising events in Liverpool and Brighton I highly recommend a visit. The acts will be slick, the cause a worthy one and you will have lots of fun.
Click here for the for the Brighton show
click here: for the Liverpool show.
xxx