Dance4Life UK delivers massive school workshop tour to 5,000
01-12-2007
Once again, Dance4Life toured in several locations across the UK and Wales delivering a 90 minute interactive workshop in 30 different schools and reached over 5,000 young people! After the success of last year’s tour, the Dance4life tour team returned to some of the 2006 schools as well as going to new schools especially in the borough of Newham and Tower Hamlets in London where the HIV and AIDS rates are amongst the highest in the country.
Similarly to last year the workshop used videos, discussion, music and dance to inform students aged between 14 and 17 in the UK about HIV and AIDS and to address stigma and discrimination amongst young people. We were privileged to have amongst the tour team members 3 international speakers from Zambia, Uganda and Jamaica who shared their experiences of HIV and AIDS in their own countries, giving students the ability to increase their understanding of the global impact of HIV and AIDS. The information sessions were furthermore supported by teaching the worldwide Dance4Life drill, the dance that thousands of students worldwide are learning, to show their mobilisation and ready to perform in next year’s big event. Where as the majority of the schools were in London, the tour team also travelled to Bedford, Brighton, Bristol and Wales delivering an average of 2 workshops a day and reaching over 5000 young people in total.
The end of the tour comes with a little sadness having to say goodbye to our speakers, however the tour team leaves in their wake the excitement and motivation of students, Agents of Change who have been encouraged to organise their own fundraising, campaigning and awareness raising in their schools. This further success contributes to Dance4Life’s aim to get 1 million young people by 2014 to be dancing simultaneously, connected by satellite, making a powerful positive statement in line with the millennium developmental goals. This is Dance4life’s second year in the UK and now that the tour has come to an end, we will start recruiting schools for our 2008 tour, aiming to expand the number of students involved. We are also always looking for more people to get involved in Dance4Life UK. For more information please visit www.dance4life.co.uk .
The Dance4Life UK Tour Team
The Dance4Life tour team is a diverse group dedicated to educating and motivating young people. The tour team consisted of:
- An SPW representative – Julie Cassard who is the Dance4Life school tour coordinator for the UK. Julie previously volunteered with SPW Nepal in 2005-2006 on the Health Education Programme.
- Red Zebra – 2 dance facilitators Tom Carr and Dusan Djurovic joined the tour to teach the drill, motivate and unite young people in the UK with young people across the globe.
- Ntenje Katota, Enoch Magala and Davia Morrison – visiting the UK from Zambia, Uganda and Jamaica respectively to take part in the workshop and share their experiences from their own countries with the students. Both Ntenje and Enoch are ex-SPW volunteers, and have since been very active in their ex volunteer network and in tackling the HIV and AIDS pandemic in their countries in addressing policy leaders. Davia is a youth journalist and youth advocate in Jamaica and has been working closely with UNICEF, she has hopes of taking Dance4Life back to her country.
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