Servers of the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Federation (FIHF) held creative writing workshops – ‘The “I and the Whole” – with about 30 teenagers between 13 and 19 years of age, from the Casa da Criança Santa Isabel, in Luanda, Angola.
In the workshops, the participants worked on different human and pedagogical aspects, such as self-knowledge, reflection on daily life, their own history, and values such as truth, cooperation, providing new insights about themselves, others and the world.
In addition to the theatrical games, storytelling and writing techniques, they also taught how to produce a handmade bookbinding, which consists of sewing sheets with string, thread and needles. One can reuse paper, bind books, make notepads and notebooks of various sizes.
Following on from the creative writing preparation, a watercolor activity was applied to the inside of the handmade notebook, or funzine, so they could be in contact with themselves, work on the notion of life’s transitory cycles and emotions, based on the experience through colors.
These manual activities involved sewing and watercolor work with fine motor coordination, concentration, memory capacity and observation, in addition to stimulating creativity and the desire to produce something with their own hands.
Writing one’s own story
The idea of creating a handmade notebook or fanzine was to produce a diary so that young people could practice writing, tell their own stories or even create new ones, based on the elements that were worked on during the workshops.
“Creative writing is a very effective pedagogical methodology as it enables participants to learn to listen to their inner world and to transpose it onto paper. This sharpens the inner voice and contributes to expressing thoughts, feelings and emotions,” says Anderson Santiago, a humanitarian server who worked on the focus of the activity.
Word therapy
When writing, an individual expresses and observes oneself. And when one reads what one has written, everything can gain new perceptions and contours. In addition, by following up on one’s own records, one can perceive changes and internal advances.
Yes… Writing can be therapeutic and is a powerful exercise of self-observation, a journey towards self-knowledge. It is a playful, creative and pleasurable adventure, which requires kindness towards oneself and a lot of curiosity.
Conceição enthusiastically states that the workshop taught her many new things, but, above all, by practicing creative writing she recalled facts in her life that she had forgotten.
For Caetano, writing has helped him to express himself better in front of other people: “Writing has helped me to get everything out of me, to tell everything I have been through”.
“It was a wonderful job done here in Angola by the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM). They managed to awaken some things in us,” Conceição declares.
Learn more about the Art Education activities developed at the Angola Humanitarian Mission
