Assignment #1

Alwan-wa-Awtar, is a non-profit organization that has been established in December 2005 aiming to promote performing and visual arts, in addition, to use these arts as facilitators for social development. They, also, aim at creating a comfortable environment that allows youth to nurture their artistic senses and allow them, as inspired members of their community, to see beauty within their surroundings, and hence, develop their lives.

Alwan-wa-Awtar targets the inhabitants of the area known as El Hadaba El Wosta in Cairo's Moqattam hills. This area is composed of people who were housed there when the 1992 earthquake destroyed their original homes and they have fully recovered since. The organization targets youth between seven and twenty years of age where they attempt to help them surpass their societal limitations, develop their creativity, enhance their basic learning skills, strengthen their thinking skills, and increase their cultural sphere.

There are on-going artistic activities at Alwan-wa-Awtar organized by artistic professional who highly value the importance and the role of development through the arts. The activities are numerous in the organization's archive; however, one chooses to give examples of what one has been exposed to upon visiting Alwan-wa-Awtar. Musical instruments are a big portion of what the children participate in and it highly astonished one to hear them playing all sorts of the songs on the guitar ranging from classical Arabic (Om Kalthoum's Enta Omry) to movie soundtracks (Nino Rota's The Godfather) to popular oldies (Shirley Basie's Love Story) to rock songs (Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb and Metallica's Wish You Were Here). Moreover, one found playing this music to be a great bonding experience with the children proving that art overpasses cultural and generation gaps. More importantly, the organization engages the children in theatre and specifically, Theatre of the Oppressed; which is a theatrical genre developed by Brazilian director Augosto Boal to create an outlet for Latin American societies to voice their concerns within their respective communities.

Alwan-wa-Awtar further enriches its activities through field trips where the children are exposed to the Egyptian artistic community with visits to places like Fagnoun and The Townhouse Gallery. Recently, the children went on a field trip to the Cairo Opera House to attend the musical performance of Broadway Comes to Egypt. This was especially significant for them as the show's choreographer had visited the organization and had given the children dancing workshops. Such field trips give them a taste of how the said art form is conducted in the professional arena.

One chose to work with Alwan-wa-Awtar for several reasons. The first is the passion for the arts itself and the strong belief that art is a language that all peoples can communicate through. Hence, development through the arts could be greatly benefiting for all types of youth around the globe. Second, one has been highly interested in working with Alwan-wa-Awtar for the past year. One's first exposition to the organization was in writing up a proposal for a Business Writing course where one found it surprisingly amazing that such an organization existed in Egypt. Earlier this summer, one visited Alwan-wa-Awtar with a photography course and was practically exposed to their work and wanted to participate in it. However, time was a great constrain and this course practicum serves as the necessary encouragement to make the time for active participation in one's society. Finally, one strongly believes in specialization. Several other organizations were options for this practicum; however, one chose Alwan-wa-Awtar as it is the only one that would allow one to share the artistic expertise that one has been being trained in for the past five years.

The tasks one will be engaged in within Alwan-wa-Awtar are in the form of conducting workshops for the duration of the practicum i.e. two months, once a week. There are two different workshops that one will be conducting. The first is a physical fitness workshop as one is a former professional tennis player and a current coach. The organization finds this workshop to be in demand to properly direct the children's energy and allow them to physically engage as opposed to just sitting around. The second is a photography workshop as one is a professional photographer. The organization finds this workshop to be in demand as the children themselves are highly interested in it especially since it was previously offered; however, they have been lacking an instructor for it for quite some time.

As explained above, one's first impressions of Alwan-wa-Awtar during the past year were those of admiration and enthusiasm being exposed to the organization through papers or a lecture by its director, Ms. Azza Kamel. The actual impression upon working there was quite different though. One still has the same admiration and enthusiasm as before; however, matters are a lot more in perspective now. It was quite interesting during the physical fitness workshop to notice that children are the same across the board. One coaches at Heliopolis Sporting Club, which is a club mostly for richer families where as at Alwan-wa-Awtar, one was coaching children from Al Hadaba Al Wosta. Interestingly, they were acting the same in how much they whine about being in pain due to the different muscle exercise, how they sometimes try to cheat their scores, etc. They are just children, one figured and the experience of coaching at the club greatly helped in properly conducting the workshop; keeping it fun while maintaining discipline. It was a lot quieter during the photography workshop as one was teaching the children about the basic theory of the art. As a small class, they were not all that interested as it was theoretical rather than practical, which is why we will be tackling practical next Saturday through building our own pin-hole cameras. However, one found the children to be quite smart as they were quickly grasping the concepts and analyzing the material.

In conclusion, one is very thankful for the chance to participate in Alwan-wa-Awtar and giving back to the community through what one knows best and looks forward to a fruitful experience throughout the semester and beyond.