Page 26 - MY Book - My Voice

WorkshopsMada Center, SaidaThree workshops carried out between 2014 and 2015.The goal for the rst two workshops, in April and September 2014, was ambitious. The plan was to doa My Book, My Voice workshop. It would require a high level of concentrated work over time, creative methods new to most of the participants, and a high level of craftsmanship in making a book in traditional bookbinding technique. Each workshop lasted for three full days, so we had time to get to know each other, and, hopefully, nish one book each. I hoped the workshops would be balanced, not too di cult and not too easy.Another challenge was the mixed groups; the participants were a mix of teachers from MSSCF primary schools, social workers from The Mada Center, and children and youth from the target group in the local community, aged between 8 and 22. In this report I will focus on the children and youth.Forum and MSSCF has been cooperating on increasing the use of arts in education through The X-art program 2009–2012, a training program for teachers (http://interculture.no/x-art-rapport.html). The My Book, My Voice workshops is a step further on reaching out to new groups, the social workers at the Mada center, and people in the target population in the local community: young school dropouts, mothers from the local community, and refugees from Syria, all involved in the center’s outreach program.Many of the children and youth have bad experiences with learning at school, and their experiences with books are limited to school textbooks. The goal for the workshops was to give the school dropouts a new and extended personal experience of a book by making their own. The working process with the book will give opportunity for self-expression and hopefully give the participants a positive experience and a24