Madurai-based non profit, People’s Organisation for People Education (POPE) has launched an initiative to bring art via workshops to children from historically oppressed communities, enabling them to be in control of their narratives.
The workshops involve narrative therapy elements such as painting, craft, photography, storytelling (both visual and using spoken word), and folk art to create more social dialogue around issues that affect the children,
The initiative is being executed under the Witness for Justice programme that works for communities affected by police and caste violence, reported The News Minute.
The objective is to combat societal prejudices against marginalised communities and historically oppressed communities, especially the kuravas, in Manojpatti, Munnaiyampatti, Vallam, Sengipatti, and Thirumanur villages in Thanjavur district, added the report.
The organisation’s CEO, Pandiyan Kamal believes that there are gaps in the education system that perpetuate stigma around caste, gender, culture, and religion, and the children are only exposed to studying a “value system not created for them”. He believes that the children have the potential to create change and the initiative is a tool for the same, according to the report.
Kamal added that their Witness for Justice programme helps develop alternate pedagogy towards changing narratives, and have also built Children Resource Centres in various villages in Tamil Nadu as part of the initiative.
Earlier this month, the organisation conducted a two-day workshop for children between ages eight and eighteen years from five villages in Thanjavur.
(With inputs from The News Minute)
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