Empower 450 Vulnerable Children & Families

2022 is drawing to a close and all Mauritian children are now on holiday. This year, we reached 178 children, including 111 new ones, in ZEP schools through our art workshops.

The children had a platform where they could experiment with artistic techniques and we could have conversations about responsibilities and values. Over time, the art workshops have become a place where children can express themselves freely. In addition, during the last workshops last month, we integrated sessions on the Rights of the Child so that they are aware of their Rights.

Our workshops were not only beneficial for the students, but also for their teachers, who were able to experience our art workshops. They expressed the benefits of their participation

For this last report of the year, we would like to thank the generous donors who have helped to ensure that our projects continue in ZEP schools; with your support, many Mauritian children were able to experience our art workshops and we hope to reach even more next year. We wish you happy holidays and look forward to sharing more great stories and our actions.

Links:

• TIPA's status report 2022

TIPA is currently working on the theme of plants with Miss Virginie from Pointes aux Sables' school. The collaboration with TIPA is an obvious choice for Virginie, who explains: “The fact that plants are a living thing, including this theme in the creativity classes makes this scientific chapter more fun and interesting.”

To allow the children to discover and experiment with plants, they took a field trip last month to the nursery, Le Colibri, in Beau Bassin, where Mr. Mario, the nurseryman, had invited them. “The first thing that amazed the children was that they could walk barefoot," explains Virginie. Throughout the day, the pupils were free to move around and do whatever they wanted around the plants. The field trip was exactly what Virginie was hoping for. The children were able to observe and touch the very things they were used to seeing in their books. 

The children also had the opportunity to sow seeds in small plant pots that day. Everyone took their plant pots into the classroom and as the days went by, they were amazed to see their plants growing. The children will take their plants home with them for the holidays.

The children loved this pedagogical day. They participated in a treasure hunt, visited an abandoned house... but most of all, they faced their fear of insects by putting their hands and feet for 10 seconds in the soil. They enjoyed it so much that they repeated the same activity with their friends.

The headmaster was very pleased with the TIPA field trip. She wanted the children to display their plant pots in the schoolyard so that the other children could also look at them, but the children love their plants so much that they prefer to keep them in their classroom. Instead, they shared that they wanted to plant something else in their schoolyard. The headteacher comes around every day to see their plants and suggested that the children show their plant pots to their classmates during recess and explain what they learned on the field trip, especially their discovery of manure.

Virginie and Jacques-Henri, TIPA's Art Facilitator want the children's work to be showcased to their parents. They also intend to make a video montage to give to the parents and do a presentation during the school assembly so that the children who are not familiar with TIPA can see what their friends have done during the art workshops. A future joint project would be the creation of an album. 

Links:

• Feel free to follow TIPA's Facebook page for more news.