Collect Your Belongings – 6 Millions Plus
We wanted to connect refugees and migrants with new friends, during the difficult time of lockdown, by inviting people to work with a partner. Each person chose an object that was precious to them and would tell their partner something about their identity and sense of belonging. A photographer took photos of each individual on their doorstep holding the object and these were shared on wahtsapp. They had conversations together using whatsapp and shared their thoughts about the objects and one another’s stories with our wider group of participants. They also drew their own houses and these were made into a banner of the Collect Your Belongings Street.
Finally, they were asked to create either a shadow puppet show about their partner’s story or work with objects found at home to tell their partner’s story. They had help from artists and a drama worker to do this, working for the most part remotely until they came to Dewsbury Minster to film their presentations/shadow shows.
They benefited hugely from this during lockdown and the partners became quite close.
They are still talking to one another on whatsapp. We are doing another project as an extension of that called One Fine Day – connecting another 5 sets of people with objects. This time, the focus is on what has helped them through the Covid period and what they hope for one another. It’s happening this month. There are children and young people involved in this one
To watch the videos please click on the link below
Good News Story
Giving Back
To download the story please click here
A Story from Sudan
To download the full story please click here
kirkleeswelcomes 