Capacity Building Theatre Workshops with Marginalized Children and Young People

SACH

SACH is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Islamabad/Rawalpindi working for the rehabilitation of the victims of traumatic human rights abuses through a multidisciplinary approach that includes inter alia offering shelter, medical treatment, and psychological support to survivors of state, domestic and other kinds of abuses - especially to women and children.

The drama/theatre therapy workshop was designed to practice theatre as a process of psycho-social development, personality grooming and healing of marginalized children.

The workshop was the combination of drama/theatre techniques and psychological intervention methods. It was designed to impart some basic theatre skills through theatre games, exercises and improvisation methods with the objective to promote the emotional and social well being of those children who were being suppressed by society, in order to make them feel comfortable enough to express themselves, and to achieve a positive change in their personality though the medium of theatre/drama.

The workshop duration was two weeks and three hours long per day. The first two weeks of the training was dedicated to the process of leaning theatre skills and technique though theatre games and exercises; this further led the children to improvise a short theatre performance based on the issues and rights of the child in the society that was presented on the European Union National ChildRight Arts Festival 2011, Islamabad.

There were almost 15 workshop participants in the 8-16 year old age group and from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Azad Kashmir.

Acid Survivors Foundation

Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) Pakistan was founded in 2006 with the support of a UK-based organization: Acid Survivors Trust International was developed to support survivors of acid attacks in Pakistan. ASF-Pak provides medical, psychosocial and legal support to the victims of acid attacks to ensure physical reconstruction and reintegration into mainstream society. ASF-Pak also has initiatives to engage the media and overall society in the implementation of prevention activities.
The whole workshop was in connection with psychological application and principals to ensure the participants that theatre/drama training is full of fun and the safest and the best medium to achieve personality grooming, emotional stability, confidence building, and regaining self-esteem and also serves source of catharsis as well after experiencing the worst.
The workshop duration was ten days and three hours long per day. The first days of the training were dedicated to the process of learning theatre skills and technique through theatre games and exercises and the other days were spent in the process of preparing a short theatre performance that was based on the real life stories of young girls who have been a victim of the most horrified form of terrorism like acid burned violence against women. The performance was presented at the European Union National ChildRight Arts Festival 2011, Islamabad.