"As a child, it is my right to play"

One of the main reasons I traveled to Gulu this past weekend was to attend Abramz’s breakdance classes at a local NGO called HEALS. Aside from being a captivated onlooker, I was there to take pictures and video that I will combine with footage from the Kampala classes in order to create a fundraising video for the project. Abramz and his two incredibly talented friends Hakim and Abdul spent an entire week volunteering their time to teach children registered in the HEALS program how to breakdance. HEALS is an NGO focused on “play therapy”. All of the children who attend HEALS programs have been displaced by the conflict. Many of their families live in IDP camps and rent small huts in town where they send one or two adults to live with all of many children so that the children are kept safer within Gulu town. Some of the kids are also formally abducted and/or orphaned by HIV/AIDS. One of the phrases the organization goes by is, “as a child it is my right to play”. Singing, dancing, painting, photography, theater etc. are all ways that the organization seeks to HEAL. Breakdance classes not only perfectly fit within the organization’s purpose, but are now also a highlight and an event that the kids look forward to with great anticipation. If I ever had a doubt that Abramz’s mission to heal and empower youth through breakdancing, those doubts have been entirely eliminated and I am 100% convinced of the projects efficacy.

Classes were supposed to begin at 2 and end at 6, but the children would show up around 12 to start practicing, and we usually left around 7. There were two mats where they could dance and avoid dust, but since the number of children was upwards of 100, the majority did their moves in the dust under Gulu’s scorching sun(it’s impossible to describe the amount of dust… I can’t tell if I got a tan in Gulu or if showers just aren’t washing all of the dust off of my skin). I can think of few other occasions where I have seen such happy children. Jolly, the director of HEALS, pointed out one girl and told me that before these classes, she had never once seen her smile. This girl was among the happiest and most enthusiastic of the group. Another girl who is now under the care of Jolly herself, had spent years being sold by her mother for sex because her mother didn’t think she was smart or skilled enough at anything to bring the family something useful in any other way. She was one of the most talented dancers in the group, spent half of her time helping others learn the moves she had mastered, was elected to be one of the group leaders and teachers once Abramz was gone, and she had the biggest smile I have ever seen. There were also 2 girls and one boy who had escaped from the LRA in the past year. They had been in the bush ranging from 6 months to 2 years. They too participated enthusiastically, opened up to teamwork, accepted instruction, helped teach their peers, never got tired and did not want classes to end. The children worked hard to get their routines right, they never gave up, they were incredible breakdancers, they were proud of each other and of themselves... If that is not empowerment, if that is not healing, then I don’t know what is.