FUNdraising through crowdfunding

Our fundraising for the Social Circus Myanmar project has received support from people around the world who are backing our prgramme of workshops with at-risk and vulnerable young people in Myanmar (Burma).

Our startsomegood.com crowdfunding has just finished with 75 supporters pledging $3416 for our third dry season programme in Yangon. Thanks for being part of the fun everyone. We’re inspired and humbled by your response and messages of encouragement.

FUNdraising with an ebay auction

Now we’re privileged to be auctioning an extraordinary piece of art from the 2016 Glastonbury Festival of the Performing Arts as we continue with fundraising for this year’s programme. Juggler extraordinaire Haggis McLeod, who runs Glastonbury’s Theatre & Circus fields, joined us in Yangon last year for the International Juggling Festival. This year he introduced me to Glastonbury festival’s resident artist Stanley Donwood, well known as the artist behind the Radiohead album art since 1995.

Stanley’s official festival artwork is visible everywhere during the festival, from the big screens on the stages to the posters and programmes, and the coveted wristbands on every festival-goers wrist. Stanley liked what he heard about the social circus project in Myanmar and gifted the Serious Fun Committee a 3 metre by 1 metre tapestry created from his original 1 metre-long Glastonbury 2016 linocut.

He named it “Somewhat Slightly Dazed” in homage to David Bowie who died as he began working on this year’s festival.

“David Bowie made a song called Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed back in 1969. As well as being an homage to Bowie it’s also a good description for most of the people at the festival. It’s a picture of the motes that whirl in a blue summer sky when you lie on the grass, and of the endless passages and messages drawn in the air by birds and insects, and a paean to beautiful hallucinations. Here we are, anchored to planet Earth, unwashed, and somewhat slightly dazed.”  Stanley Donwood, June 2016

The tapestry is one of only two created and has been signed by both Stanley Donwood and festival founder Michael Eavis.

Project underway in Yangon

Meanwhile on the ground in Yangon, our team is battling Yangon’s notorious traffic jams and hot humid weather to lead workshops, spread the word about social circus, and work with our local partners to develop plans for a social circus network and arts centre.

We started this season with no funds but a firm belief that the young circus teams in Yangon deserve supporting, and we are grateful for our friends and contacts around the globe who are backing the project in any way they can. Any ideas for fundraising, please leave a comment below! Click here to check out the auction progress on ebay.

Jude

Photographer and guest blogger Jeanne Hallacy joins a workshop with the Scholarships 4 Street Kids social circus team in Perle, Mingaladon.

(Sunday 8th Jan 2017)

ABOUT THE CENTRE 

The Yedana Foster Home located on the far outskirts of Yangon in Mingaladon district is a local organization working in partnership with the government Ministry of Social Welfare.

The center houses 33 youth, many of who were abandoned at birth in public hospitals. The children aged 8 to 17 live as a family and attend informal education classes at the adjacent school run by the NGO Scholarships 4 Street Kids or the local school.

KHIN CHO THET

12-year-old Khin Cho Thet is the middle child among eight siblings. Her family struggle to survive in Palay Township on the modest salary her father earns driving supplies for a construction company.

Khin Cho Thet attends non-formal education classes at a school run by the NGO, Scholarships 4 Street Kids. She is working on her Diabolo skills in the social circus and is happy when Saya Jules comes each week to teach them juggling skills.

“I have more confidence now,” she says. “I’m a slow learner in school but in the circus group I put all my efforts towards learning.”

EITTE PAUNG

Eitte Paung’s smile stretches across the yard where the children gather for the Social Circus workshop like a beam of light. He was referred to the Yedana Foster Home a year ago by the government social welfare department. His father and brother live in his native Shan state and are too poor to give him the opportunities he thrives upon. An ethnic Palaung, the 17-year-old says he doesn’t reply to people who assume his physical challenges make him incapable of achieving his goals.
“I can do anything; I’m clever at handicrafts, can repair watches and am a very good swimmer”, he says.

”I’m so happy to be in the program and make new friends. I learn from watching others and sometimes I think I can’t do something but then a friend shows me how and I finally get it.”

Eitte Paung’s favorite circus skill is the Pagan Bya Pyeh plate spinning and he does a mean hat flip trick.

HAN DEE DEE HTUT

“I’ve grown up here at the center” 11-year-old Han Dee Dee says. “I like spinning plates and feel so happy in this program.”

Han Dee Dee is in grade 6 at the nearby government school where she excels in math.

“I really want to learn how to ride the unicycle,” she says, “I know it’s difficult but I want to challenge myself.”

Han Dee Dee dreams of being a teacher in the future.

SAYA JULES, CIRCUS INSTRUCTOR

Jules has been devoting himself to building Social Circus Myanmar since it’s founding in 2014. He travels to Burma for several months a year to teach juggling and circus skills to children in need; holding weekly workshops at community organizations serving street children, hearing impaired and developmentally disabled youth.

“The way to develop the group is to formalize their skills. The next stage for Social Circus is to find a place where we can have proper equipment, safety mats, more teachers and train the youth more effectively.”

Jules begins and closes each workshop by gathering the children in a circle. With translation from Social Circus volunteer translator, Phyu Phyu, he tells them the symbolism of being part of a circle, “In our circus circle, we use many things that are circles, plates, hoola hoops and juggling balls. We are also a circle. It’s our circle of friendship, sharing together and helping each other learn.”

WORKSHOP GALLERY

A day of global celebration

When the call went out to celebrate social circus around the world with the 2nd annual International Social Circus Day, the team in Yangon responded with a pop-up public workshop in Mahabandoola Gardens right in the centre of downtown.

Social Circus Myanmar was one of 44 organisations taking part in a wave of events across the globe aimed at showing the positive impact of social circus. From Myanmar to Madagascar, and Afghanistan to Japan, the aim was to bring fun to local communities and raise awareness of social circus activities.

The Yangon team brought a slack rope, hula hoops, spinning plates, juggling props, stilts, bubbles and more to the park for adults and children to try out.  Huge thanks to all involved, especially Julien Ariza for coordinating, facilitators U Pho Ke, Kyaw Min Soe, Anne Bougault, Betti mo, Caroline, Maya Takagi-Vlahek and the social circus team from Mingaladon.   Thanks also to David H. Photography.