What’s it all about?
‘Sahrawi Spirit: People, Poems & Proverbs of the Sahrawi’ is a beautiful and inspiring book, celebrating and raising awareness of an incredible refugee community who have been living in the Algerian Sahara since 1975. Photographer Emma Brown has spent the last 2 years documenting the work of Olive Branch Arts on the refugee camps and ‘Sahrawi Spirit’ is the culmination of all of this work.
Here’s where we need your help! By supporting this campaign and buying a package you will make it possible for us to publish this book. Together we will not only create a wonderful piece of art, but also produce a much-needed fundraising tool for the future work of Olive Branch Arts.
Book Launch & Photographic Exhibition
Over the past 4 years we have been supported by an amazing network of people who have helped raise funds for each of the projects we have run in the Sahara. We offer our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has come with us on this journey so far (you know who you are!).
With this in mind, we would like to garner existing support and build upon this expanding community, ensuring the story and plight of the Sahrawi continues to reach new eyes, ears and hearts.
Once we have reached our target, the book will go straight to press and be ready to launch at a private view and photographic exhibition in October. We have already secured a free gallery space with the Camden Collective Pop-Up for this event. We are relying on the kindness and support of our friends, families and colleagues, and also on their desire and ability to spread the word. If, after you have bought a package, you encourage one other person to find out more about this patient and determined community and buy a package, the campaign will literally fly! Just think, Christmas is around the corner and the book would make a beautiful gift!!
So just to clarify our Aims…
1. Raise awareness and strengthen the voice of the Sahrawi community in the UK and beyond.
2. Create a fundraising tool for Olive Branch Arts, with remaining books to be sold at future events.
3. Publish a stunning piece of art.
Who are we?
Olive Branch Arts is a small, not-for-profit Creative Arts Organisation based in London that uses Theatre, Dramatherapy and the Arts to engage, inspire and challenge. Creative Directors Becky Finlay Hall and David Stothard started creatively engaging with the Sahrawi Community in 2010. They have, to date, delivered annual theatre training programmes to young people between the ages of 16-25, worked creatively and therapeutically with elders in the Land Mine Centre and offered training and support to staff in the Special Needs Schools on the camps. This year will also see a first bridge project in which creative exchanges and artistic responses will be generated between a number of community groups here in the UK and groups on the refugee camps. A young London Filmmaker and a Sahrawi Filmmaker will document the entire process.
www.olivebranch-arts.com
Twitter: @OliveBranchArts
www.facebook.com/OliveBranchArts
Emma Brown is a London based Portrait and Humanitarian photographer. Her calm and meditative approach to photography enables her to go almost un-noticed, allowing her to create lyrical images in a humanistic way. As a result, her work is infused with observational story telling where the essential energy of the subject shines through.
www.emmabrownphotography.com
Twitter: emmaphotoartist
www.facebook.com/SahrawiSpiritBook
A little about Western Sahara
Western Sahara is the last colony in Africa and the site of a protracted territorial dispute between the Moroccan Kingdom, which claims sovereignty and the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement that seeks independence. The majority of Sahrawis are refugees today in one of the harshest deserts in the world. Despite extreme hardships, the community has managed to build a democratically run nation-in-exile where women play a prominent role, defying Western preconceptions of Arab-Muslim societies.
To hear more of the music in our campaign video please check out the album Sandtracks by Tiris produced in partnership with Sandblast Arts www.sandblast-arts.org
Welcome to week 4! We are really excited to be so close to our target - and we still have one week left. The support & kindness of our supporters has been staggering! If you are considering buying one of our packages, then please do get involved. If we are lucky enough to exceed our target, all additional funds raised will go directly towards our Community Artist Fund, which ensures local Sahrawi artists are commisioned during our projects on the camps!
Check out this week's video, which offers an insight into our work with the staff and children at the Special Needs Schools on a number of the camps.
http://youtu.be/x_HmcRvXR_E
Welcome to week 3! We have been so overwhelmed by the support our campaign has received - we seriously know a lot of very kind people! We would like to say a big thank-you to everyone who has bought a package so far and would encourage you to please spread the word. If you haven't yet joined the campaign, then please check out our package offers. We are very nearly there!!
Check out this week's video, which offers an insight into our work with the patients and residents from the Land Mine Victim Centre on the camps.
http://youtu.be/0F04YEcs0Uc
Welcome to week 2! Thank you so much for all your support - we are amazed and excited by the response so far and are well on the way to reaching our target. If you have already supported the campaign, please accept our heartfelt thanks and, if you have the time, please pass information about the project on to your friends. If you haven't yet bought a package then please do get involved!!
Here is a video to give you a taster of our youth theatre projects on the camps. Over the next couple of weeks we will also be sharing images from our work in the Landmine Victim Centre and the Special Needs Schools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_yYSnLpl80
