Children’s Arts Trust brings Ke Sharp
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Sunday July 30, 2023 06:00
The trust's director, Edward Moroka explained that Ke Sharp is a stage play which promotes the notion to Stay Healthy and Resist Pressure aimed at educating young people especially the student population about the use of drugs, alcohol and other social ills such as bullying and school vandalism.
Moroka stated that the manner in which young people use drugs is a serious concern that needs urgent attention because both the country and children are being ruined in the process.
“We decided to come up with this initiative because of death rates caused by drugs, human trafficking, money laundering, dysfunctional families and mental health.
Crime/gangs or gangs are also a concern caused by being idle. Ke Sharp is a community theatre campaign that raises awareness about drugs among the young people in schools. We have realised that young people are easy target market of drug lords,” he said. He further said arts education for development is a programme developed for children aged between three and16 years.
He added that this year, they opted to engage with the Form Threes who did not progress to senior schools and Form Fives who did not progress to tertiary schools.
He explained that their aim was to give them arts skills so that they could learn, implement their art skills and make a living out of their learned skills. As a part of practicals, Moroka explained that they chose the topic Ke Sharp then made a production that targeted the student population and teach them about drugs and other social ills. We chose to work with out of school young people close to Gaborone because some end in drugs use while others commit suicide due to depression.
“We give them hope with this arts education for development programme,” he said. In short, he said they were doing two things at the same time, which is training others then they teach students. He further pointed out that they are slowly growing. He said due to financial constraints they were not able to reach other parts of the country. He, however, explained that with the National Arts Council they were hopeful things would be better going forward so that they could train other young people who were not residing in Gaborone and the surroundings. The Children Arts Trust was established in May 2022. “We have exposed and train around 38 children so far and among them 16 kids participated at the Southern Arts Festival for children and young people in Harare, Zimababwe, last year august.
Our challenge is to reach other young people who are willing to participate in the arts education for development programme. We do not have resources to operate offices around the country.
We will be launching Ke Sharp at the Bokamoso CJSS on August 11, 2023,” he said. Moroka further explained that children who were not gifted academically could do better in the creative space. He said they were calling on them to participate in the arts education for development programme. He said they use theatre to show its impact in the society because it engages the audience than giving a speech.