Therapeutic Arts Program Trip in Kenya & Tanzania

This winter break I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Kenya and Tanzania (East Africa) to participate in a therapeutic arts program trip organized by Global Alliance for Africa (GAA). Over two weeks (January 12–25), I had the opportunity to not only travel through and get to know the countries, their cultures, and their customs, but also to work together with local artists and other creative art therapists to learn, experience, have fun, and grow professionally as a future dance/movement therapist.

GAA is a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. It works with African not-for-profit agencies, faith-based organizations, and local communities to design and develop innovative economic strengthening programs for families and communities who care for and support orphaned and other vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS. My program’s student organization, MOVED, has partnered with GAA a couple times over the past year, performing at their annual gala and as part of a fundraiser.

The therapeutic arts program trip is one of GAA’s many programs that allows African artists and cultural workers and U.S. art therapists to enhance their skills and knowledge in basic counseling and therapeutic arts practices through paraprofessional trainings. The trainings are designed as cultural exchanges, with U.S. art therapists sharing their understanding and experiences of arts therapies and African artists sharing their understanding and experiences of cultural resources and practices, concepts related to art in therapy, indigenous healing practices, and the needs of orphaned children.

The whole group (approximately 26 people, 50% African, 50% non-African) travels together through Kenya and Tanzania, visiting different communities and learning from one another.

The difference between talk (right) and professional talk therapy (left)

This time we have all four creative art therapies represented (dance/movement, visual arts, music, and drama), and it is wonderful to see how all those therapies are similar and unique at the same time. It is also thrilling to engage in conversation and activities with people who share the same passion for the arts. Being able to do so in a multicultural framework (participants are from the U.S., France, Germany, Australia, Kenya, and Tanzania) makes my heart sing, and I cannot even describe the excitement and gratitude I feel to participate in this program.

As I write this post, we’ve been in Karen, Kenya, for three days, and working as a group for two days. Much of the work until now was about getting to know one other and basic introduction into the art therapies. We also had our first “skill share,” where participants share knowledge about a particular art form by doing it together. Today Eunice Wadu, one of our Kenyan artists, taught us about block printing.

Block printing :)

Over the next couple of days, we will visit four more cities: towns in Kenya and Tanzania (Nairobi/Kibera, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, and Bagamoyo), have more workshops and skill shares, visit communities to work with children, and also do some fun stuff in between (e.g. visiting a elephant orphanage or local markets). Look for my next post for a recap on the whole therapeutic arts program trip!

Until then, kwaheri (goodbye)!

P.S. There are over 100 different languages spoken in Kenya and Tanzania. The two words used here (“karibu sana” and “kwaheri”) are Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, which is considered the national language in both countries.