We’re headed to Cairo! Frame Maker Arts is participating in a residency period in Cairo, Egypt from 2018-2020. We will be working with refugees in the heart of the city, teaching music, dance, and arts classes, training teachers, and much much more. In the last five years, over 4 million Sudanese and South Sudanese have been displaced. Cairo is home to thousands of these men, women and families. They face discrimination, violence, poverty and often abuse, and they stand strong and brave in the face of it. The heart of this project is preservation, and we hope to work with the local teachers and children to preserve their culture and language in spite of being displaced. Please help us brighten their classrooms and hearts by donating to one of these special endeavors!
Kazoos 4 Kids – musical instruments for Little Melodies classes and teacher training in Cairo, Egypt! These simple instruments are guaranteed to bring smiles to all, and our goal is to give sets of instruments to at least a dozen classrooms, and provide a collection for the Africa Teacher Training Network, for the addition of music and art to academic subjects!
Books Around the World– is our new program for providing literature and creative art supplies to schools in need, including blessing teachers with much needed resources! We are currently accepting donations of cash, or books and tools from the Amazon above, curated by artists, educators, and parents. Additional funds will contribute to model sets for local artisans and wood carvers to create their own classroom materials; alphabets, numbers, animals, and more! All donations to Books Around the World will benefit the Africa Teacher Training Network (see below!). This multi-ethnic and mulit-national group is a budding vision for education on the African Continent.
Swing Kids – There are very few safe places for children to play outdoors in many of the Cairo neighborhoods, and most of the school buildings have not had new paint since they were built! A few things on our list for this trip are bulk colored paint and painting supplies for whitewashing classrooms and making murals! We’ll also be designing games and learning activities that can be painted onto walls and floors, and made indoors with simple items like wood, balls, and string. Given in concert with FrameMaker Arts seminars on the necessity of movement in the classroom for children.
Wonder in Egypt is about far more than a single country. Rather, this name is the embodiment of the spirit of a place that has been a gateway for the nations for thousands of years! Perhaps it will also be a gateway for the largest education movement in the world’s modern history as well.
