The art of bringing peace across borders The right message.
If INDIA and PAKISTAN do end up as peaceful neighbours, then 20 youngsters in Bangalore can be proud they had something to do with it. Not directly of course, but Raghavendra, Deepu, Srinivas and the rest of the gang, along with a young Dutch woman, Renee, are part of an "art for peace" project involving people from both the countries. The boys are from a non-governmental organisation called ECHO - Empowerment of Children and Human Rights Organisation. And for the past two months, Renee Fleuren has been training them in drama and dance. The 20-year-old is a final year drama student at Artez, an art school in The Netherlands. "Right now, I am working with a group called Foundation Theatre Embassy (FTE) as part of my summer practicals," she says. FTE wanted to do something about India and Pakistan's moves towards peace. "And they decided to do it through a theatrical declaration of love between Indians and Pakistanis," Renee explains. ECHO is the Indian organisation involved in the project. On the Pakistani side, there's "Punjabi Lok Rahs" from Sahiwal. While the latter programme � conducted by Renee's classmate, Frodo Singer � involves mainly adults, the ECHO project has youngsters aged six to 18. The boys here all used to be "street children" and, according to ECHO's director, Fr. Antony, some have been convicted for petty crimes. But all of them have suffered. Sreenivas, for example, was doused with kerosene and burnt because his employer took umbrage at something the teenager said. But when rehearsing his parts with Renee, the boy is all smiles. Never mind his wrinkled skin and body. The Indian and Pakistani projects will be simultaneously performed on March 20. "But the Pakistani one will begin 30 minutes early because of the differing time zones. Both sides can see each other via the Internet," says Renee. A website, www.adeclarationoflove.com, has been set up for the purpose. The Bangalore event will be held at 5 p.m. at the garden in Dodda Gubbi, Bagalur Road, beyond Kothanur, some 15 km from the city. For more details, contact Fr. Antony of ECHO on 2542 3582 or log onto www.echoindia.org/www.theatre-embassy.org or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] By Divya Sreedharan (The Hindu) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
