Expressing feelings through art

On Monday the volunteers went back to Letaba school, taking with them paints, crayons, party packs, with an assortment of plastic musical instruments and some bottles of bubbles.There were approximateley 15 children who appeared pleased  to see us again and quickly joined in the activities.  Their enthusiasm apparent as we had no more paper to draw and paint on! Swtching however to the younger children showing them how to blow bubbles and play with the musical toys was fun and sad atthe same time, knowing that we would not be coming back this trip to do these creative activties with them. This seems such a small step at present , but brings such joy that is all worth while.

The objective of the work with the children is to enable them to express themselves using art as the medium, giving freedom of expression without limitations.

Although we are not therapists, we  base our work on a recognised therapy, Art therapy.

For many years, art therapy has been recognised as a way of helping people cope with mental illness.  Many health professionals think it may:

• Encourage you to express your emotions, which could help improve your relationship with others
• Encourage you to be creative and self confident
• Help control anxiety, depression and low self esteem
• Help take your mind off pain or discomfort

Our aim with the children as we have mentioned above is to help them express themselves freely

An arty day, full of paints and pots of laughter

Saturday we decided to have an art day with the aim of providing an opportunity for the children to express themselves freely through art.  We believed that this could work better for the children as understanding of language was less crucial. Some of the children had already left for home, which provided a chance to work with a more manageable group, which included some of the older children, who could speak some English. This proved to be a great success as the children were able to demonstrate their creativity and the enjoyment that they were having shone through in their artwork and in their faces. It was a windy day with thunder in the air and big spots of rain threatening to wash our fun away.  However, the children were not concerned and watching us chasing the paper caused them much merriment and laughter . We covered the floors with paper, paints and vereything we could think of, and they very quickly hurried in to enjoy this!

Their pictures were full of hearts and love and they continually asked for more paper, exhausting our supply quite rapidly.

A few of the younger children enjoyed painting stones with their fingers and hand prints were once again a big success.

Using small canvas boards the children drew some inspirational pictures of Vervet Monkeys and we were really pleased when some showed an understanding that the monkeys are not pests but an important part of their natural environment.

Their pictures communicated a story with us, and also broke down the language barrier.  We were very touched by the work that they had done and the way that they had  managed to expressed their feelings, freely, but positively and non intrusive.

The afternoon was uplifting for us all and we were eager to return the next day.

Learning about vervet monkey behaviour and conservation

On Saturday we were lucky enough to visit the Vervet monkey foundation where the volunteers were taken on a tour of the sanctuary. They were told about the conservation issues and learned a lot about the behaviour of the vervet monkeys in the troops. They also saw a baby monkey who had been unfortunate to have a small disability of his legs, but had been able to adapt well to his environment and was a very happy monkey. This was helpful for the volunteers to learn about another species of primates that can also have disabilities which would relate back to the children we are working with and how they have managed to adapt to their surroundings without the aid of external help. Many of the children at the school have disabilities such as having no arms or no legs, and have been given no support for this, but like this monkey, are able to adapt their disability into their independent life.

We also learned about cases of rescued monkeys and the impact that this has now had on their lives. Some of them have not been able to be introduced to other monkeys easily due to their inability to recognise themselves as a monkey. This may be due to the fact they were kept as pets and have never seen another monkey before.

There were other cases where the monkeys had had very successful releases and they were able to form stable troops. This taught the volunteers, not just about vervet monkeys but that they could relate this back to the children they are working with, knowing that monkeys who would have been rescued or abused can now live happy and social lives.

The vervet monkey foundation take in abused, orphaned, rescued and injured monkeys. Another of Yebo’s main aims is to support primate conservation so we will take this opportunity to inform you of the great work they are doing and the help they are needing from people around the world.

The Vervet Monkey Foundation, Tzaneen, South Africa, are in urgent need of a new enclosure for this year’s orphaned vervet monkeys to grow up in. Some of the orphans that came in this year have a past of their mum being hit by a car or shot due to unnecessary human vervet conflict.

Sadly, they are struggling for funding for a new enclosure for them which they plan to be the size of 1-2 hectares and will cost around R75,000 ($10,000, 7300 Euros or £6700) which they cannot afford. They desperately need to get them into a natural enclosure where they can climb trees, eat grass and be monkeys.

The monkeys depend on public donations as they are non-profit and non-government funded and have over 500 vervets to look after which alone has astronomical food bills of approximately R2000 (£200) a day! Without help and support, the centre and the orphans simply cannot survive. The Vervet monkey foundation are working hard everyday to get funding to help each monkey in their care. They re in the process of setting up an online contribute regulary food store and the opportunity to adopt a monkey.

The orphans which will go into the enclosure are called: Mamba, Precious, Ash, Forest, Jessie, Chane, Skollie, Phylis. There are also 3 juveniles called Hoppy, Scritch and Mistletoe that will help to look after them with the plans of more monkeys being integrated with them as they come in.

If you would like to help monkeys like Forest, Precious and Jessie reach their new enclosure You can read more about it on their fundraising page on their website:
http://www.vervet.za.org/how_help/fundraising.asp
or e-mail info@vervet.za.org

As well as other primate sanctuaries, Yebo will continue to support the Vervet monkey foundation with awareness through therapeutic primate-based education activties with children in the UK, South Africa and Uganda.

Splish, splash, splosh – children, volunteers, swimming!

Today while at Daktari, we had great pleasure in taking the children swimming.  For many this was their first time.  They did have a swimming pool at their school a few years ago but this has now been demolished.

The children were aided by the volunteers to swim, splash around and have fun, as well as gentle relaxation enabling their muscles and limbs to be stretched. The warm water allowed many of the children to feel complete freedom from their restrictive limbs, offering muscles the support needed to create gravity defying movements.

Some of the children who do not usually verbalise were being encouraged by two volunteers either side of them to move their arms through the water and say ‘swim’.  This appeared to have a positive affect on the children, and also the volunteers who also had a great time.

Hydrotherapy is used  to support children with disabilities in their movements and to relax muscles as well as aiding confidence.  It also has a therapeutic effect when relaxing in the water, allowing their body to float.  By stretching muscles in water, physiotherapists use this to aid relaxation of tight muscles and to use stretching movements. It also allows children to move their limbs more freely in the water. The children from Letaba school were able to kick their legs, enabling them to move with support through the water, they did this on their back and on their front and were also encouraged to use their arms.

The pool was filled with excitable faces and immense glee from bouncing balls being thrown back and forth across the pool.  The children all appeared to be happy with excitment and laughter filling the area.

More children meet wildlife for the first time in their lives

On Friday we took 15 children from Letaba special needs school to Daktari animal orphanage where we had previously

visited at the beginning of the trip.  The children travelled in their bus and arrived at the sanctuary to meet some of the animals there.  Many of them have never seen or felt such animals.  We were greeted by some friendly pet dogs which the children appeared to be scared of, backing off and looking frightened.  Some of them appeared to be more relaxed although those who had more of a physical disability in a wheelchair or who found walking a difficulty were the ones who appeared to be scared.

After lunch the children were taken around the animals at Daktari by their very accommodating volunteers.  The children were able to have hands on contact with the safer well managed animals, such as baby squirrels and a baby mongoose, along with holding and touching a tortoise and meeting a blind donkey.  For the children who had site problems they appeared to verbally express with their teachers the connection between animals having disabilities like theirs.  They also were able to see eagles, who were now unable to fly due to damage to their wings.  This was explained to the children in such a way that this was a physical disability for an eagle, as it would normally be able to fly and now cannot. Again the children appeared to understand this as a physical disability that they could relate to themselves.

Touch was also a large part of the trip.  Some of the children were very excited and confident when the squirrels and baby mongoose were around them.  They were able to have them on their shoulders and were able to stroke them gently.  They appeared to get great pleasure from this, many unsure faces that seemed to turn into amazement.  The touch of the tortoise and its shell gave us a chance to allow the children to feel different materials, going from the fur of the donkey to the hard shell of the tortoise.

The children who seemed to back off from the animals had one to one attention from some of the volunteers, to help them have the confidence to touch an animal that they may have never seen before.  The volunteers helped the children by taking their hand and gently stroking the animal until they were confident enough to do this on their own. This then created smiles and laughter.

Many of the children were fairly quiet when around the animals and others appeared to be very over stimulated, getting very excited and were unable to calm down easily.  Their concentration and amazment of the animals appeared to give some of them confidence.

Many of the children who we have worked with appear to not verbalise well to communicate their needs although they have a good understanding.  It was noted by teachers that some of the children will usually get attention by hitting or making loud noises instead of using words.  During this trip some of the children began to use words to say the name of the animals which they copied from the volunteers.  We then began to work hard with the children and teachers to help them verbailse their needs instead of their normal attention seeking behaviour of hitting and shouting.  This was great to be part of and we wished that this was something we could work consistently with, with the children for the next few months. We encouraged them to use words to ask for things such as a drink, or to say an animals name rather than just point and make a loud noise.  This was then rewarded to them by asking them to verbalise ‘well done’.

Our observational aims for this trip were focused on emotions, behaviour, feelings, senses, stimulation and abilities which were all recorded for our own research and for the teachers benefit.

Before the trip we were given basic information on the children that we would be working with that day, on their disabilities, ages and background family traumas such as their family members that had died.  We were given, at times, different information on the children’s disabilities from various teachers as apposed to what was written in their notes.  In the UK, gaining access to records such as these would be a highly confidential process, although in this country and environment seems to be accessible to anybody. This enabled us to have a better understanding of the children that we would be working with on this day.

We have aimed to start an individual record on each child focussing on their emotions, behaviour, disabilities communication and any disclosed traumas in their lives which is more in depth than the medical and hisory record already existing.  This is started in a book called ‘All about me’ in which the idea has been taken from a children’s hospice in the UK where this is successfully used to help and commuicate with the people who are caring for the child, although the content in the UK will be very different to the children in this environment. We decided to keep the name ‘All about me’ as it was easier and simple for the teachers to understand due to the language barrier.

The ‘All about me’ is to help us as volunteers learn more about the child’s individual needs and behaviour that would be written down and observed.  This is of couse more importantly for the teachers benefit as there are so many children staying at this school.  The children have many disabilities that have not been diagnosed and this is something that we may never find out, they also have many undisclosed traumas that again we may never know about, but at the moment, by concentrating on their behaviour, self expression and abilities  we aim to aid and benefit the children on activities such as this trip.  As communication, support with emotions, behavioural disabilties, and working around feelings has been asked for by the teachers, we aim to provide them with as much support as possible.

We learnt from this day that the problems of the children are far greater than what was first thought  and observed by us when we first walked into this school, and that this project will now be taking on a more indepth and focused approach to communication.

A cultural evening of dancing, with drums and bum shaking!

On Wednesday evening we had a cultural evening, where local Shaangaan people came to give us the experience of traditional music and dance. We bought beer to share around and a fire was built, which we sat around as they started to play music on drums. It was a clear night and we spent the evening dancing barefoot around the fire beneath the stars, surrounded by the sounds of the bush. The atmosphere of the party was fun and friendly, and we all danced, with the exception of Angelica who made the excuse that she was tired to get out of it! It was an amazing night and we’re all looking forward to a similar party before we leave next week.

Many of the local people who live in this area are  shaangaan culture and live near by in shanti towns, which is a village made of self built small huts from various sources such as bricks, wood and metal.  Although living without material possessions such as a kitchen, sofas, bedrooms and televisions they appear to remain very happy in themselves.

The community will regularly hold big parties where they all gather to dance, drink, make food and play drums. Make shift sound systems are plugged into the batteries of cars, due to the fact they do not have electricity, and the parties are full of traditional dancing, with around 200 people gathering for each one.  Make shift old televisions are also plugged into car batteries and  mothers carry their children on their backs using towels, as well as joining in the dancing.

The culture of Shaangaan appears to be far away from the westernised areas in the world such as the USA and the United Kingdom. Some will tell you that their diets of food are sometimes poor and others will tell you that their food is pure, home grown and untreated of chemicals such as pesticides which make them live longer and stronger.  They laugh when you tell them how much you pay for one avocado and that you spend all your money in a supermarket. They ask “why?” and they also ask “why do you come to this country” not as an unwelcome comment but as they would never want to leave their own country because of the beauty of it.

Simple lives appear to cause less stress, a bigger bridge of community spirit, and a knowledge that you will never be alone. They do not understand they way we live, and why sometimes, we feel trapped in our own material world. A poster on the wall we noticed where they lived read “People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.” We have learned a lot from their culture and feel this has been a great experience.