The Tye Dye team have just returned from their trip to Sri Lanka where they helped kids at two very different yet equally exciting projects; firstly at Tea Leaf Vision with young adults and secondly at Child Action Lanka with younger children.
Their work with with Tea Leaf Vision provided opportunities for the 18-24-year-olds that took part to explore and tackle some of the most difficult and painful social problems in their communities using a creative outlet: drama.
The Tye Dye team were deeply impressed by the level of commitment and honesty of the participants during the workshops and in their final performances. Tye Dey methods are firmly rooted in their passion for appreciating the individual voices of participants. The final performances at Tea Leaf Vision came entirely from the voices of participants, emerging through a careful process allowing them to release and reflect upon their own and others’ experiences in a safe space.
At Child Action Lanka the project was focused on using drama to teach English and, importantly, improve the confidence and self-worth of the extremely poor children in the communities of Batticaloa that were so heavily fractured by the 2004 tsunami and long civil war. In the workshops the children transformed from cripplingly nervous to playful, comfortable young humans. The team witnessed these children experience the pure creative joys of play and imagination, all developed in a space in which their words, sounds, voices, shapes and ideas, were all utterly appreciated and welcomed.