PLTJ was started as an awareness group in 1994 as a community based response to the growing challenges posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Isiolo. Isiolo county is in the North eastern region of Kenya. It suffers from great internal conflicts between politicians & tribes over the issue of land ownership. There are often violent clashes resulting in the displacement of women and children from their homes. The project was formally registered in 1998 as a community based organization (CBO) providing education for abandoned children, health care for the management of opportunistic infections, nutritional support and home based care to support those sick in their homes. The program has since greatly developed its areas of work, enabling the restoration of human dignity to continue while promoting coexistence and positive living to over 7,000 families.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
This collective arts project aims to explore how through the collaboration of Kenyan and International artists we can develop an effective contribution to the field of peace building. The project will target artists with an interest in social change, enthusiastic about developing a vision for artists as change agents. SBK will run workshops to facilitate a collective process of developing this vision through the arts.
Artists will learn how to work effectively as a group with increased flexibility in using different artistic disciplines when working with communities and non - artists. The focus will be on creating the right circumstances for things to emerge and for the artists to take ownership of the collective and shape the direction through periodic gatherings and workshops. The workshops will culminate in a community carnival project with Pepo La Tumaini Jangwani in Isiolo, which will be live streamed in March as part of a Global Carnival Showcase between Trinidad, Brazil, Venice, Kenya and the UK. A film will be made for public show and exhibition aiming to increase the exposure for the artists and the Tumaini community at the same time creating a platform for discourse around the role of arts and social change in Kenya.
The much needed funds will enable artists to travel to Isiolo for workshops, pay for materials and cover expenses required to make the project a success. The project will be completed in March 2014 and will be submitted To the European Graduate School in Switzerland as a Masters Thesis for Conflict Transformation and Peace Building in April 2014.
