Category Archives: SHUGA

Sahrawi

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While documenting here in the Sahrawi, I have made an effort to collect thoughts from various inhabitants, on how best to represent their story. At the beginning I was not really convinced about the legacy of my place in this foreign land where I see myself as an outsider in many ways.

 

My documentation emphasizes the stories (experiences) of ordinary people. Last year I conducted a photo-exhibition in the camps where the local people had a chance to see and react to their own photos. Looking at their different reactions as they participated in selecting and picking up a copy of their own pictures, i began to understand that even in the midst of their much anticipated Independence the people want to experience the joy of the moment. The second exhibition was in Tifariti (liberated zone). Here we hang the pictures on the tents of the POLISARIO soldiers. The soldiers actively participated, the open space was accessible to especially the foreigners at the 13th Congreso in between the intervals of the Political activities. One of the soldiers who had passionately helped us hung up the photos could not hide his excitement for the fact that one of the exhibited photos had his girl friend on it. Several times he paused against the picture so i could photograph him displaying her, and i proudly took the souvenir picture.  Even in the midst of the intense political atmosphere the soldiers could afford a light moment, and share their own dreams. In my presentation i will try to demonstrate how we as outsiders can sometimes be caught between a cliché, and trying to represent a story as it is; given a complex scenario like Sahrawi. I would like to make the case that while the heated Political campaign is justified, the ordinary Sahrawi spirit is also still alive in their culture and day to day life. One of the concerns that the Sahrawi people expressed is the sense that the United Nations and the global powers are not interested enough in the Sahrawi cause, hence the delay for their independence. In response to this I would like to take this documentary to other parts of the world so that i can contribute to the sensitization process. I would like to document the reactions of the audiences where ever this exhibition/documentary will go, and then at a later date return to show the Sahrawi people how the people outside responded to their story. I am convinced that the strongest weapon the Sahrawi have is the uniqueness of their historical and cultural background. I will attempt to make a fair presentation of their story so as to win the heart and minds of the outside world and inspire positive hope in the Sahrawi.

Face Book Album

SHUGA

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Since our inception in 2005, The Portrait Home has continued to reach out. Through our charity programme; Sweet Home Uganda (SHUGA). We have gone fourth to raise awareness on the plight of the orphaned children and other vulnerable children.

Through both invitations and on personal initiative we look out for potential adoptive organizations and individuals to organize and, or participate in our monthly photo exhibitions aimed at raising awareness, especially on children affected by Poverty, AIDS, and or War.

 

I lost my Mother to AIDS in 2001 just before my graduation. One thing that I remember is that: even in pain, she was so concerned about the motherless children she was leaving behind. I promised her that I would get a job and take care of my siblings. I was not able to get a job like many other educated grandaunts here in Uganda. So, I instead, took up art – a hobby I was involved in during the University and every time I reflect on my personal experience, I get motivated to work harder, just to support and bring joy to another orphan because I know what it is like to be one.

Mission

To raise awareness to the plight of the orphaned, especially those who are orphaned having lost their parents to AIDS, and or war.

Objectives

• To link vulnerable orphaned children to potential adoptive parents and registered adoptive organizations through documentary film and photo exhibitions

• To follow up and compile accountability photo-reports for sponsors on behalf of the organizations that sponsor children

• To organize fundraising exhibitions on behalf of organizations that support vulnerable children

Partners

Team-work makes the dream work

In preparation, planning and executing the charity activities, there is a lot of background work input by our volunteer members. Most of our volunteers are students from tertiary institutions.

 

Through these exhibitions, I exhibit the plight of my vulnerable comrades – as a way of mobilizing and creating awareness of the danger they face. This task is big and it’s on this note that I seek to reach out for your participation, to bring joy to the children as we document and exhibit pictorial stories of their transformations.

 

If you would like to partner with us in this noble cause, you can participate by hosting, and also sending the word out about our monthly exhibitions. You can also contribute financially where your finances will be used to cater for materials and other clerical services needed to conduct the ongoing exhibitions. You may also provide anything else, as led by your conscience: clothes, computers, shoes, bags, cameras, books, toys, anything – we need it all!!

 

Be part of this noble cause!

Sweet Sound Steps

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Our primary focus is to establish a better living environment while learning and sharing in the cultural richness of dance and music. This goal will be accomplished by relying on the effective use of inherent social bonding elements of the art of dance, which encourages everyone to be a teacher and student simultaneously in an open non-judgmental atmosphere of fun and growth. Through regular participation in the classes, one will also enjoy a sense of “oneness” through the verbal sharing of the individual’s hopes and experiences, among whose commendable objectives will be to rebuild individual strength and confidence and rekindle one’s essential feelings of caring and belonging to the community.

Our Mission:

To enhance quality living. By creating growth opportunity for self discovery, counseling, exercise, fitness and stress relief.
Our Vision:

To reconnect individuals and families to their passionate pursuit of living healthy and meaningful life.

 

Background

Many of us know the benefits of body exercise but rarely make time or even plan to exercise. The ever increasing pressure to cope with career, family, and other demands has almost rendered exercising one’s body a luxury at a time when we most need it. Far more than a daily routine, I have come to appreciate that exercising my mind and body muscles is not only refreshing but also enhances my general outlook.
It is a commendable thing to spend ours in the office trying to be responsible but also a worthwhile thing to reward your body with a regular muscle tone that will enable you to work more effectively. If you don’t like working out in the gym Sweet Sound Steps makes it easier and more fun as we offer you a clean dance class / exercise package. Forget the misconception that dance belongs to the teens. Having danced for the last ten years I can testify to the effect that I need it more with every passing year. Kaddu Wasswa and Christopher Kato are living examples of what dance can do to rejuvenate and maintain one’s body and mind in shape. Well into their 70’s and 80’s they are testimony to the fact that good health and exercise (dance) are inseparable. Dance is not limited to the professionals either. If you have the ability to respond and move rhythmically to music then you can dance, regardless of age, sex, height, size whatever.Dance engages your mind and all your body muscles.It makes you feel lighter with every passing day as you practice.We have a variety to cater for the different preferences; ball room, waltz, salsa, mambo, rumba and other modern dances. The ability to dance effectively comes with discipline and dedication. Our steps are quick simple and fun, helping one to develop their stamina, bone strength and body balance. Dancing to a song that you love particularly make the exercise even more enjoyable as one gets lost in the sound and movements. Our class lasts 1-3 hour with intervals of humor and comedy.

Dance Therapy

Concept: Street Sound Steps is a unique therapeutic dance project that aims to bring the corporate world together with world of street children with the major goal of using dance to uplift the emotional as well social welfare of participants. The project is implemented in five steps. More…

 

Why Dance Therapy?

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Arthur C Kisitu  founded “Sweet/Street Sound Steps” Dance 2 Live! Inc. 2005.

SSS is organized as a directorate under the Portrait Home to provide a framework to improve the quality of life for individuals and families in Uganda, Africa and abroad. Our goal is to offer simple life skills whose therapeutic effects combined with relieving stress, building confidence, and self-esteem, teach healthy choices in life, strengthen spirituality and healing, as well as to provide advocacy and referral of depressed individuals to qualified health agencies and practitioners.

 

To communicate what is too deep, too fine for words


Enhancing the connection between the mind and the body it allows for healing and growth on physical, emotional and spiritual levels.  Dance therapy can make the difference between resistance and relationship by creating non-threatening group and individual exploration of feelings and therapeutic issues, such as self-esteem or personal insight.

I like to think of dance therapy as an additional tool to the traditional verbal therapies.

Instead of only sitting and talking about your problems, feelings and experiences you can add the opportunity to get up and express them through dance, movement, and drama.
For example: Showing/expressing anger in your body is much more powerful than sitting still and talking about it. When it is expressed through the body and mind then total, integrated healing can take place.

 

Concept:

Street Sound Steps is a unique therapeutic dance project that aims to bring the corporate world together with world of street children with the major goal of using dance to uplift the emotional as well social welfare of participants. The project is implemented in five steps.

Step I

Dance lessons will be given to staff members of participating organizations

Step II

After one month of classes the staff will be taken to mingle with street childrenStepIII

An audition of street children will take place at which each organization will select a team of six-twelve members who they will take on as their team

Step IV

The staff members will train and participate in a theme dance with the street kidsStep V

The grand competition

This will be the climax of the project Each company will present its team, at a competition where the best team will walk out with a grand prize.

Benefits

The project gives companies a fun and visible plat form of showcasing their corporate social responsibility.

The dance classes will serve as stress relievers for participating staff members.

 

Who Can Benefit From Dance Therapy?

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Dance can be beneficial to everyone and all ages. Populations may include physical and sexual abuse survivors, people recovering from substance abuse, the developmentally and physically disabled, at-risk youth, dysfunction families, prison inmates and the general public.

Studies by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in the US claim that ball room dancing regularly lowers the risk of developing coronary heart disease; it decreases blood pressure, helps with weight management and strengthens the bones of dancers’ legs and hips. We encourage people with heart disease or other serious medical cases to consult with their doctors before undertaking vigorous dance class. For the ladies, dance movements can prepare a woman’s body for child birth. Toning abdominal muscles and a regular pelvic hip movement is excellent for antenatal exercises. It strengthens the muscles that are used during the child birth process.

Dance therapy also Makes a Difference for People With…
With Alzheimer’s Disease
Experiences from the person’s past are selected to trigger short and long term memory, decrease agitation, and enhance reality orientation.
With Chronic Illness
To distract people from pain and facilitate needed relaxation.
With Head Injuries
To encourage self-expression, communication and socialization, and to facilitate cognitive retraining
With Substance Abuse Problems
The difference between denial and determination is made, experimental techniques confront the client’s barriers to the recovery process.
With Developmental Disabilities
Sessions are structured to teach cognitive, motor, and daily living skills and provide the opportunity to experience success.
With Physical Disabilities
Experiences promote rehabilitative goals and to increase motivation and success.
Our Cutting-edge applications of Creative Arts Therapies are being used to address the most complex societal issues. Issues being addressed are those that have been identified as key,For example:

School Violence Prevention and Intervention
Alzheimer’s disease Treatment
Campaign Against Suicide
Domestic Violence Prevention
Substance Abuse Prevention
Health Prevention and Promotion
Breast Cancer Treatment

Katanga

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Katanga slum has been land under dispute over a period of time. For the last 10 years the inhabitants have been battling the Uganda police every now and then over this piece of land, turning this into a “Ugandan story” of the “Gaza strip”. Govt has no plan to resettle this slum population of over 25,000 in any other place, but rather hopes these people can some how dissolve into oblivion and give way to its (the government’s) developmental plans.
Acting on a court order, Makerere university recently started demolishing part of the slum, until an angry mob (slum dwellers) over powered the police and reclaimed the space from which buildings had been obliterated, but only for a seemingly short period of time, because untill now, the public is living in suspense wondering when the next onslaught of the arm of government will reign in. As it appears now, Katanga is a no man’s land, and as a result many opportunistic businesses have been started by the inhabitants who desperately need to survive while the University and Uganda government speculate their next move.


Car washing bays, brick making, garbage sorting and recycling, young women who wash clothes for students and older women who sell banana peels from the restaurants  are some of the businesses being undertaken by the residents of the area. The place currently suffers the burden of a broken drainage system because of the increasing students population in the slam area and floods which are normally caused by a good day’s out pour of rain. Sewage from the nearby Mulago hospital usually spills into the slum valley, leaving a great number of children with terrible skin diseases because they are normally exposed to this filth. On either side of the slum storied buildings are going up , albeit at the expense of the slum dwellers.

 

After meeting with a team of artists and photographers on this project we agreed to adopt this story and put a positive spin on the plight of Katanga. We adopted a model that we believe can be used to meet the government’s need for the area’s development, and at the same time enabling the slum dwellers to benefit from its undertakings. For example; in our proposed model plan the water that was flooding would now be channeled into water reservoirs and later used by some of the small businesses mentioned above. As artists we don’t have the money to implement this plan but nevertheless we would like to design this futuristic model  in a way that is most suitable to them as the common people. This plan was shared with some of the locals and a pilot project was tested on the 9th October 2010 (Uganda’s Independence Day). We invited the community to an open space photo exhibition, of pictures that had been taken in the same Katanga with the community’s general consent. The children responded more positively whereas some adults were more keen on getting some freebies.

In the past, i made an effort to set out on a venture to collect thoughts from various artists, friends and advisors on how to go about the project, their contribution and help accorded me has been amazingly splendid. Amongst these were/have been people like Olivier de Boer, Giovanna Giorli, Andrea Stultiens, Denis onyodi, Eric Rwakoma, Roland Tibirusya, Sabine Swinkels, Katrin Peters, Funda Tolan and Irene sinou. All these people have sacrificed their time and contributed in one way or another, to the progress of this project and I as the author currently feel overwhelmed and subdued by the intensity and enormousness of the project and would, personally suggest that each one of us recommends an organization(s) that would adopt it, or it be put on hold for some time as we wait for the story to take shape

Against this suggestion, Irene and I came to an understanding, that the following should be put into consideration while the story takes shape.  Let’s get your contributions too, suggestions alterations, compliments and clarifications so that we can be able to progress on this project.

Join Our Face book Group

 

Work in Progress

 

Irene’s Explanations

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a) I’m asking myself the questions about the people themselves, who live there; a NO MAN’S LAND! literally occupied, but virtually doesn’t belong to anybody, no tax contributions, no rule of law but obviously with a lot of children.

Migrating from rural areas, these people are coming to Kampala to find a job, build a life and with hardly any identification policies, Katanga remains a significant place where invisible people (unknown
city dwellers) manage to make a living out of nothing. Katanga embodies dynamism of Kampala with all the environmental, social, ecological, infrastructure problems.

=> The goal of this phase is to open a place, where residents of Katanga can showcase themselves in a way that can translate it into photo and film.

b) The photography project:-
A serial portrait where the person is not reduced to the social situation (environment) or its functionality, but where he/she presents themselves first of all as a human being. Had it been possible, we could have started this project by the 15th of October, and be able to progress from the first step.

We need to bring in the church, the mosque, the school, the bar, the video hall, the salon. People going to the village, a couple getting married, and birth.

=> our goal here is managing to connect with the people of Katanga, listen to them, and especially  focusing on the standing posture, as a way to enhance the vanishing human face

c)  The documentary film.
A time in Katanga, not intrusive, but silence, to show how people live together, with the difficulties and the successes, the interdependence of the activities, with a purpose of confronting Katanga’s past (how it was built and when, and how it ‘s evolving) to how the people of Kampala see it, then how do the residents of Katanga consider the future.
=>the main goal is to give a human face to a social problem.

d) The show case / exhibition
On the independence day of Uganda, organized in Katanga and for Katanga a one day exhibition where people can see the result of their participation toward the project.

Print will be shown into destroyed houses present on the site Video interview and photography portrait will be made during this day for the archive and to open a space where anyone who wants can be pictured.
As the children asked organize a football match and to offer a foot ball balloon.

Hip hop workshop
Painting workshop.
This project could take place during a period of one year.

Possible problem statement:

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- sanitation
-drainage

Increasing awareness of environment degradation due to the impact of human re settlement

Impact of rural immigration on wetlands (bearing in mind that most of Kampala was reclaimed from a swamp)

The channel is going through Kampala and can make all Kampala under water.

so friends, this is how far we’ve come, the dream seems to be teeming up to become a reality, please get back to me after reading through this.
Give us your personal contribution, in any way you can.