Kabul, January 2011

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Dear Friends, Partners and Sponsors

Another amazing year has passed. In our circus in Afghanistan 2010 has been a busy and exciting year with many new activities and expansion to more regions of the country. After eight years of establishing and capacity building MMCCs local partner, Afghan Educational Children Circus (AECC), our Afghan colleagues are now in the process of taking over more and more of the responsibility. The local Afghan NGO includes about 40 national staff including two mobile teams of professional adult artists touring and performing in large parts of the country throughout the school seasons.

In MMCC and AECC’s three permanent centres in Kabul, Herat and Bamyan, the staffs with 15 of the oldest children organizes and implements weekly workshops for hundreds of children in schools and disability organizations. And more centres are on the way. In 2010 we improved the centre in Bamyan, that is gradually becoming a resource centre for rural areas in more regions. The circus container from which the Bamyan activities were initiated is now based in Ghor, where new MMCC/AECC junior artist have already made their first performances. In spring 2010 another and larger container was modified into a new circus home and moved to Badakshan, where more semi-permanent activities are in process of being started. In Jalalabad, where the climate is warm, weekly workshops and performances are implemented during the entire winter along with MMCC/AECCs large winter programs, that this year takes place in both Kabul and Herat.

MMCC continue to assist and supervise the activities in Afghanistan as well as to both take responsibility for and practically ensure that the values it is all built upon become fully integrated to all activities as part of expansions and growth. Fundraising and maintaining our unique international network is essential for continuing what has been created. With a small selection of the many 2010 achievements below, we wish you a Happy and Joyful 2011.

Thank You all for your support
MMCC and AECC’s Team
Media Activities
Children Media activities are becoming an increasing part of MMCC/AECC. In 2010 we improved our Children Radio production and established new improved radio facilities as well as a brand new studio for Video recordings and -productions. In the autumn we also printed our first high quality Children Magazine. The new magazine is called Zange Tafrih (entertainment time) and is totally from branding and conceptualizing to design and content produced by children (with Pavithra Selvam’s volunteer supervision and technical assistance). The magazine, which is printed in 10,000 copies, is gradually distributed among children nationwide and has been a breakthrough to be followed with new editions soon.

National Events inspire the regions
94 boys and girls from five provinces participated in our annual Jugging Championship. Among the participants were also more of the disabled children that are trained by MMCC/AECC’s youngsters. The Championship took place in the children’s summer school holiday where we successfully also held the first National Children Theatre Festival in which the children created their own performances that all focused on a theme of Peace and Friendship. Inspired by the big festival in Kabul, our Bamyan team a month later initiated and made a similar event entirely by themselves to celebrate the International Day of Peace
Workshops by international artists and a new Circus Tent
In 2010 workshops by two international artists, James from Kenya and Esben from Denmark, assisted to improve the Circus School Children’s skills. As a direct result of Esben’s workshop the acrobatic boys made their so far most amazing show in the summer. The show took place in our new fantastic circus tent, that we received as a donation from a children circus in Europe. Earlier in the spring MMCC’s artistic director, Seth Bloom, assisted to improve the Mobile adult artist’s performance skills while Christina Gelsone at the same time conducted a very successful workshops for our girls in both Herat and Kabul. To see a video from the acrobatic boys show in the summer click on the photos:

Afghan Children Circus touring Italy
In December 2010 – January 2011 a team of 11 Afghan girls and boys with their 3 Afghan masters entertain and fascinate Italians with their culture and skills. They visit Italian schools and teach the students Afghan Atan dance and tell them about Afghanistan.
They were visited and highly appreciated by Prof. Musa Maroofi ambassador of Afghanistan. To see and read more click on the photo.
Shura with participant children from 5 provinces
Shura is the Islamic tradition of assembling (parliament) and gathering to exchange opinions and make decisions. In 2010 we started a new project that supports children in more regions to organize their own Children-Shura. Beside regular Children-Shura activities in schools and the provinces we organized two National Children-Shuras in MMCC/AECC’s centre in Kabul. Officials from the ministries and media participated in very constructive children meetings after the Shura workshops in which the children shared their views and knowledge.
See and read more click on the photo:

Children Creative Joyful Educational Environments
In 2010 we also started a project of painting and decorating schools with the best of colours that children love to improve their surrounding by their own help and advice. In this project 14 schools are included and the results so far have been overwhelming. A number of educational decorative props and play installations are also developed and prepared for these schools to make education more fun. Simultaneously our young trainers are capacity building the schools with different cultural activities to utilise the improved frames optimal.
We are soon reaching 2 million audiences
In 2010 MMCC/AECC’s junior and adult artists performed and made workshops for more than 150,000 children across the Afghanistan. We will very soon be celebrating our 2,000,000 audience achievement. In Kabul, Herat, Bamyan and Ghor the performances are made by the children that are trained in our centres. Performances and workshops in more provinces including rural regions are made by MMCC/AECCs Mobile adult artists. The mobile activities in 2010 included essential messages about landmine awareness and is part of our highly appreciated cooperation with Mine Action Centre of Afghanistan (MACCA) that also include a number of activities for and with disabled children.