* Children from Ghour Al-Mazra'ah and Amman participate in presenting pantomime performances organized by the Spanish Embassy in cooperation with the Zikra Initiative and Haya Cultural Center.
Amman-Jordan- 02 June 2008: In cooperation with the Zikra Initiative and Haya Cultural Center, the Spanish Embassy organized art workshops to introduce children from Ghour Al-Mazra'ah and from Amman, members in the Haya Cultural Centre, to Pantomime Theater. The children underwent a week of training supervised by the Spanish artist Khosah and his wife artist Claudia, after which the children were able to master the pantomime art well enough to perform an entire pantomime play with the participation of the Spanish artist, in two performances held in Amman and Ghour Al-Mazra'ah.
This activity supported by the Spanish Embassy is an inseparable part of Zikra Initiative's cultural programs aimed at bringing people closer together to foster greater acceptance of each other and to enable them to learn and exchange experiences. Not to mention, building bridges among the different components of the Jordanian society through the activities of Zikra Initiative. This is in addition to helping people in less privileged areas develop themselves, learn and acquire more expertise. The interaction between Ghour Al-Mazra'ah and Amman children was wonderful. Moreover, the children gained new experiences by learning the international pantomime art, not to mention children's joy in training and performing.
Haya Cultural Center's support of these workshops is in line with the center's goals represented by serving children ages 6 to 13 from various parts of the kingdom, in order to develop their cultural and artistic skills and abilities, polish and invest in their talents in the best possible way, and serve youth aged 14 to 18 through various supervisory and voluntary programs.
Commenting on this workshop, Mr. Rabee Zureikat, founder and manager of Zikra Initiative, said:" The pantomime theater workshop is in line with the initiative's goals represented by boosting interaction, bringing the Jordanian community closer together, and building bridges of communication; which were embodied this time through the participation in a theatrical performance by the Ghour Al-Mazra'ah and Amman children. The workshop is also part of a series of cultural activities that the initiative held through which many talents have been discovered and which are being nurtured constantly. By doing so, we achieved one of the most important goals of the initiative; namely, developing Ghour Al-Mazra'ah community by helping them learn a new type of art that would contribute to boosting their self-confidence, and teaching them new skills in communication and self-expression."
For her part, Ms. Patricia Garcia Lepetit, responsible of cultural cooperation projects, said:" "The idea of this workshop was motivated by two aims: From one side, offer the possibility to the children to enjoy and develop their social and communication skills through the art of pantomime, a theatre without words that helps to develop imagination as well as self expression. From the other, we wanted to mix children from Amman and from Al Ghour to make them interact, break stereotypes, bring them to work together to prepare their final shows despite of their different social backgrounds."
Haya Cultural Center Director, Ms. Dina Abu-Hamdan also valued the fruitful cooperation that would bring closer together the children from different environments through a joint dialogue and communication language, noting that pantomime is a language through which an individual can learn to express himself. She stressed that the Haya Cultural Center will continue to participate in organizing many activities and programs that would contribute to polishing and developing the talents of children to build a promising generation capable of giving, excelling, and innovating.
-Ends-
About Zikra Initiative:
Zikra is an initiative that was established in March 2007, dedicated to promote community service among Jordanian youth and families. The initiative aims to bring people closer together in a way through which they can learn about and accept each other. And it also aims to bridge the socio-economic gap in Jordan through its various activities.
Zikra initiative also seeks to re-define the old concept of community service that was based on offering donations to the poor by substituting it by the "Exchange" or barter concept. This concept is based on the notion of offering aid to the underprivileged as an exchange of handicrafts or a lecture given by the latter which will ensure that their dignity is preserved by avoiding donations which may cause them embarrassment.
The initiative's name "Zikra" is the Arabic word for "memory", a name reflecting the concept behind the initiative which embodies a whole new meaning behind "giving" or "donating" to the needy. The initiative also encourages its members to distribute the Zikras they wish to pass on personally and build links with their recipients. These may include clothes, toys, utensils, books, workshops, in addition to food and medicine.
© Press Release 2008
