Thursday, December 18, 2003
>Circus to Iraq is a small group of activist-performers - fools, clowns, jugglers, unicyclists, stilt walkers and
>magicians - who will travel to Iraq in January 2004 to give performances and circus skills workshops to
>children traumatized by sanctions, war and its aftermath. They will give circus toys and humanitarian
>goods to the children and their families and, on their return, will carry out advocacy work for the rights of
>the Iraqi people based on their new understanding of the situation.
>Performances and workshops will take place primarily in camps of Internally Displaced Persons (refugees
>within the country, made homeless by bombing or post-war evictions) and children's shelters. Many of
>the children in the shelters are not strictly orphans but their families are simply too poor to keep them at
>home. Others have been living on the streets for some time, working as shoe shiners, selling or begging.
>Tragically there are also girls who were raped during the post-war chaos and, as a result, thrown out by
>their families in a society which regards them as useless if they are no longer marriageable.
>C2i is working in co-operation with groups such as the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, HELP (German
>NGO) and the Mine Education Group to identify groups of children and families who will benefit. It is hoped
>that, in certain areas, C2i will also help with cluster bomb awareness through performances.
>Group member Devilstick Peat has worked extensively in the Balkans and Northern Ireland with traumatized
>children. He writes:
>"There's got to be laughter. Even in Kosova, where unspeakable horrors happened, there was laughter.
>Wherever there's a darkness, be it war, famine, pestilence or poverty, laughter can bring HOPE.
>"We went to a small mountain village in Kosova once, just after the war. No one else had been there since
>the war ended. For over ten years the children had been taught to hide from strangers. If you don't, they
>will rape and slowly kill you.
>"Took us ages to get those kids to trust us enough to come and play, maybe an hour or so. The only place
>that was safe and mine free was a field outside the school, part of which was taken up by children's
>graves. At one point we had maybe 80 kids playing games with 3 parachutes. In the middle of this was an
>old man, his hands held out in front of him, palm upwards, tears were running down a face that was split
>in two by his smile as he slowly turned around and around, unable to believe what he saw.
>"I never thought I'd see the day when my grandchildren would laugh again. Thank you for returning them to the
>real world"
>The performers have raised the money to cover their own travel and in-country expenses but money is needed
>for the following:
>1. Equipment, such as parachutes for games.
>2. Circus toys. Supporters have made a lot of juggling sacks which are unfilled, for ease of carrying, so we
>will need to buy a lot of filling on arrival in Iraq.
>We would like to bring more toys as these were identified as one of the main needs for children in
>the IDP camps, who didn't even have footballs or soft toys.
>3. Humanitarian goods to give to the families of the children - although the circus is a project in its own
>right, where there is such desperate need we would like to be able to give blankets, clothes, gas,
>medicines and so on.
>There is no upper limit to the amount of money we would like to raise - the more we have, the more we
>can give. We would like to bring at least 1000 pounds sterling (there's no pound sign on the keyboards over
>here), which will all go directly to help Iraqi families.
>Donations can be sent to Circus2Iraq, c/o. Reading, International Solidarity Centre, 35-39 London Street,
>Reading, Berkshire, UK
>Vive la circo revolucion.
>magicians - who will travel to Iraq in January 2004 to give performances and circus skills workshops to
>children traumatized by sanctions, war and its aftermath. They will give circus toys and humanitarian
>goods to the children and their families and, on their return, will carry out advocacy work for the rights of
>the Iraqi people based on their new understanding of the situation.
>Performances and workshops will take place primarily in camps of Internally Displaced Persons (refugees
>within the country, made homeless by bombing or post-war evictions) and children's shelters. Many of
>the children in the shelters are not strictly orphans but their families are simply too poor to keep them at
>home. Others have been living on the streets for some time, working as shoe shiners, selling or begging.
>Tragically there are also girls who were raped during the post-war chaos and, as a result, thrown out by
>their families in a society which regards them as useless if they are no longer marriageable.
>C2i is working in co-operation with groups such as the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, HELP (German
>NGO) and the Mine Education Group to identify groups of children and families who will benefit. It is hoped
>that, in certain areas, C2i will also help with cluster bomb awareness through performances.
>Group member Devilstick Peat has worked extensively in the Balkans and Northern Ireland with traumatized
>children. He writes:
>"There's got to be laughter. Even in Kosova, where unspeakable horrors happened, there was laughter.
>Wherever there's a darkness, be it war, famine, pestilence or poverty, laughter can bring HOPE.
>"We went to a small mountain village in Kosova once, just after the war. No one else had been there since
>the war ended. For over ten years the children had been taught to hide from strangers. If you don't, they
>will rape and slowly kill you.
>"Took us ages to get those kids to trust us enough to come and play, maybe an hour or so. The only place
>that was safe and mine free was a field outside the school, part of which was taken up by children's
>graves. At one point we had maybe 80 kids playing games with 3 parachutes. In the middle of this was an
>old man, his hands held out in front of him, palm upwards, tears were running down a face that was split
>in two by his smile as he slowly turned around and around, unable to believe what he saw.
>"I never thought I'd see the day when my grandchildren would laugh again. Thank you for returning them to the
>real world"
>The performers have raised the money to cover their own travel and in-country expenses but money is needed
>for the following:
>1. Equipment, such as parachutes for games.
>2. Circus toys. Supporters have made a lot of juggling sacks which are unfilled, for ease of carrying, so we
>will need to buy a lot of filling on arrival in Iraq.
>We would like to bring more toys as these were identified as one of the main needs for children in
>the IDP camps, who didn't even have footballs or soft toys.
>3. Humanitarian goods to give to the families of the children - although the circus is a project in its own
>right, where there is such desperate need we would like to be able to give blankets, clothes, gas,
>medicines and so on.
>There is no upper limit to the amount of money we would like to raise - the more we have, the more we
>can give. We would like to bring at least 1000 pounds sterling (there's no pound sign on the keyboards over
>here), which will all go directly to help Iraqi families.
>Donations can be sent to Circus2Iraq, c/o. Reading, International Solidarity Centre, 35-39 London Street,
>Reading, Berkshire, UK
>Vive la circo revolucion.
