Breakdance-Spinning kids off the streets
Jul 31, 2008
IT is 6:00pm on Wednesday at the Nsambya Sharing Hall. Hip hop music is<br>booming from a CD player.The compound fills up with energetic children; some of them wearing torn clothes. These young people are dancing, making acrobatic leaps and wriggling with excitement.
By Titus Serunjogi
IT is 6:00pm on Wednesday at the Nsambya Sharing Hall. Hip hop music is
booming from a CD player.The compound fills up with energetic children; some of them wearing torn clothes. These young people are dancing, making acrobatic leaps and wriggling with excitement.
Welcome to the Breakdance Project Uganda, an initiative for rehabilitating street children, orphans, former rebel captives and child soldiers. “Since I joined the project, I have made enough money to buy clothes, soccer
boots and pay half of my fees at Emirates College.
My mother pays the rest of the school fees. We are 10 children. We used to be sent away from school for lack of fees. Now I am paid to perform at events. My best experience was when I was recently invited to Poland and paid sh300,000! I had never touched such money. I gave it to my mother,†says 16-year-old Arafat Seggoma.
Eleven-year-old Collin Kaggwa says the project changed him from being a scrap metal scavenger to a T-shirt artist. “My mother left home when I was in P.2. My father chased me away saying I was not his child. I used to sleep in Kisenyi.
During the day, I would look for scrap metal and sell it to blacksmiths. One day, I saw Abrams Tekya break-dancing outside a church with street children and joined him. He told me he would be dancing in Kalerwe the following day, I went and he taught me.
After some lessons, he invited me to join him for dance classes at Sharing Youth Centre. I used to go there every Monday and Wednesday. He also took me to hiphop parties at Sabrina’s Pub.
It was here that I saw people spraying images on a board. I sprayed my only T-shirt. A tourist saw it and bought it. With the sh50,000 he paid me, I bought a spray can and made more T-shirt artpieces.â€
Forteen-year-old Oscar Kibuuka says: “My neighbours used to make fun of
me. When I would join them for football, they would chase me away saying I was a weakling. But since I joined the project, I have made many friends. I have also been taken to teach children in camps in
Gulu and Kitgum how to breakdance.â€
“The special thing about the project is that we are equal, everyone is a teacher and a student. If you learn something, you teach others,†says Tekya, the founder of the project. He adds: “I always ask a student to take on a lesson.
I want them to have a sense of belonging. Teaching each other makes them interact across age, gender and religion.†Tekya came in when the children were break-dancing.
They all fell silent and formed a circle around him to learn a new move.
He did a series of acrobatic swings before freezing with three limbs in the air, using his left forearm and cheek for balance.
There was a frantic dash among the students to repeat his moves. Twenty-five-year-old Tekya lost his parents when he was eight. He spent his childhood with his grandmother. He learnt break-dance from movies he watched in video halls and also from the American dancers he met during rap sessions at
Sabrina’s Pub.
He adds: ‘As a child, I was fond of copying what other people did so that I
could learn from them.†That was how I learnt the break-dance. Not forgetting his roots, Tekya decided to teach breakdance to homeless children in Kalerwe, Bwaise and Kisenyi slums.
“I wanted to help the children because I had been through a similar situation. I decided to give them a skill that would
earn them friends, money and a sense of purpose.â€
Today, Tekya has rehabilitated more than 500 street children, orphans and former rebel abductees by teaching them his break-dance antics. Many of them have either returned to school or found jobs.
Within the first two years, many of Tekya’s students have turned into semi-professional dancers and are often invited to perform in clubs. These excursions provide income for them.
The Break Dance Project was crowned the best dance outfit at the Mirinda competitions, which came with a sh3m prize. When asked the best thing he liked about the project, 15-year-old Ibrahim Buwembo said: “Abramsâ€.
Why? “He took me back to school. My parents died when I was in P.3 and I had no school fees. Tekya pays my fees and I am in Primary Four at Nakivubo Settlement Primary School.â€
That is not all. Tekya has also taken break-dancing to Gulu. It is awesome to
see homeless orphans standing before hundreds of other kids teaching them how to break-dance.
Tekya and fellow dancers have also worked with the Foundation for Development of Needy Communities in Mbale, Naguru Remand Home and the Kinship Orphanage in Ganda, Wakiso district.
Tekya’s charisma has also drawn international attention. Well-wishers, especially from the US and Canada, often donate shoes, clothes and mattresses
to the children.
Minneapolis rapper Toki Wright has come to give rapping workshops and shot a documentary Hip- Hop therapy about the Break Dance Project Uganda.
Canadian hip-hop dancer, Jessica Dexter, has also choreographed a performance. Tourists are also coming for lessons. And you can imagine the enjoyment the children derive from teaching dance antics to rich middle-aged
tourists!
IT is 6:00pm on Wednesday at the Nsambya Sharing Hall. Hip hop music is
booming from a CD player.The compound fills up with energetic children; some of them wearing torn clothes. These young people are dancing, making acrobatic leaps and wriggling with excitement.
Welcome to the Breakdance Project Uganda, an initiative for rehabilitating street children, orphans, former rebel captives and child soldiers. “Since I joined the project, I have made enough money to buy clothes, soccer
boots and pay half of my fees at Emirates College.
My mother pays the rest of the school fees. We are 10 children. We used to be sent away from school for lack of fees. Now I am paid to perform at events. My best experience was when I was recently invited to Poland and paid sh300,000! I had never touched such money. I gave it to my mother,†says 16-year-old Arafat Seggoma.
Eleven-year-old Collin Kaggwa says the project changed him from being a scrap metal scavenger to a T-shirt artist. “My mother left home when I was in P.2. My father chased me away saying I was not his child. I used to sleep in Kisenyi.
During the day, I would look for scrap metal and sell it to blacksmiths. One day, I saw Abrams Tekya break-dancing outside a church with street children and joined him. He told me he would be dancing in Kalerwe the following day, I went and he taught me.
After some lessons, he invited me to join him for dance classes at Sharing Youth Centre. I used to go there every Monday and Wednesday. He also took me to hiphop parties at Sabrina’s Pub.
It was here that I saw people spraying images on a board. I sprayed my only T-shirt. A tourist saw it and bought it. With the sh50,000 he paid me, I bought a spray can and made more T-shirt artpieces.â€
Forteen-year-old Oscar Kibuuka says: “My neighbours used to make fun of
me. When I would join them for football, they would chase me away saying I was a weakling. But since I joined the project, I have made many friends. I have also been taken to teach children in camps in
Gulu and Kitgum how to breakdance.â€
“The special thing about the project is that we are equal, everyone is a teacher and a student. If you learn something, you teach others,†says Tekya, the founder of the project. He adds: “I always ask a student to take on a lesson.
I want them to have a sense of belonging. Teaching each other makes them interact across age, gender and religion.†Tekya came in when the children were break-dancing.
They all fell silent and formed a circle around him to learn a new move.
He did a series of acrobatic swings before freezing with three limbs in the air, using his left forearm and cheek for balance.
There was a frantic dash among the students to repeat his moves. Twenty-five-year-old Tekya lost his parents when he was eight. He spent his childhood with his grandmother. He learnt break-dance from movies he watched in video halls and also from the American dancers he met during rap sessions at
Sabrina’s Pub.
He adds: ‘As a child, I was fond of copying what other people did so that I
could learn from them.†That was how I learnt the break-dance. Not forgetting his roots, Tekya decided to teach breakdance to homeless children in Kalerwe, Bwaise and Kisenyi slums.
“I wanted to help the children because I had been through a similar situation. I decided to give them a skill that would
earn them friends, money and a sense of purpose.â€
Today, Tekya has rehabilitated more than 500 street children, orphans and former rebel abductees by teaching them his break-dance antics. Many of them have either returned to school or found jobs.
Within the first two years, many of Tekya’s students have turned into semi-professional dancers and are often invited to perform in clubs. These excursions provide income for them.
The Break Dance Project was crowned the best dance outfit at the Mirinda competitions, which came with a sh3m prize. When asked the best thing he liked about the project, 15-year-old Ibrahim Buwembo said: “Abramsâ€.
Why? “He took me back to school. My parents died when I was in P.3 and I had no school fees. Tekya pays my fees and I am in Primary Four at Nakivubo Settlement Primary School.â€
That is not all. Tekya has also taken break-dancing to Gulu. It is awesome to
see homeless orphans standing before hundreds of other kids teaching them how to break-dance.
Tekya and fellow dancers have also worked with the Foundation for Development of Needy Communities in Mbale, Naguru Remand Home and the Kinship Orphanage in Ganda, Wakiso district.
Tekya’s charisma has also drawn international attention. Well-wishers, especially from the US and Canada, often donate shoes, clothes and mattresses
to the children.
Minneapolis rapper Toki Wright has come to give rapping workshops and shot a documentary Hip- Hop therapy about the Break Dance Project Uganda.
Canadian hip-hop dancer, Jessica Dexter, has also choreographed a performance. Tourists are also coming for lessons. And you can imagine the enjoyment the children derive from teaching dance antics to rich middle-aged
tourists!