Pas en Avant: Community Integration through Dance-Based Pedagogy in the Lake Chad Region

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How can teaching and learning be delivered in communities where schools have been destroyed by war? This is precisely the problem in the case of the Lake Chad conflict, affecting millions of children and women in particular, across various countries (including Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad). Not only is the degradation and regression of Lake Chad generating economic, social and political instability in and between these countries; furthermore, insecurity has been aggravated by the emergence of terrorist militancy in the region. Children in the Lake Chad region have been deprived of their right to education in order to be used as forced labour, as soldiers, or as sex slaves. It is not only formal education that will provide a solution for the local refugee population, particularly since there is no secondary school in the single UNCHR camp found in the lake region of Chad. Non-formal education can be implemented bottom-up, so that communities can enjoy their human right to social and cultural education, through autochthonous forms of knowledge production and sharing. The proposed training and evaluation to be conducted in the chosen beneficiary communities will ensure long-term continuity of NSN's work. Implementation of dance-based pedagogy in the region will greatly support community building and social stabilisation. This project will be delivered by an expert international team of social artists and community workers based in Chad, with support from network members in the UK and in neighbouring Nigeria. Because our leading partner and friend Taigue Ahmed has family in the lake Chad, we have been granted access by the Ministry of Interior to this currently militarised zone. During meetings held in N'Djamena in May, we consulted UNCHR Chad (Nde Ndifonka) on the issue of logistics, facilitation and security. We have been assured that since the 2016 visit by the High Commissioner to Baga Sola, the UNCHR camp is completely safe for international media and researchers, and that very effective security measures will be in place for us. In order to inform the preparation of this bid, we held a weeklong exchange with refugees from Maro and Belom camps (located in the border with the Central African Republic). This event was held as part of the previous AHRC network that feeds this proposal. This preliminary meeting has illuminated us on, and given us a sobering insight into, the extraordinary power of dance to transform lives in the region. Twenty-five refugees made an eighteen-hour bus journey in the scorching heat (up to 47 C), to be part of a weeklong series of dance workshops led by Ahmed and his team of social artists. When asked why make such extraordinary effort, the refugees replied: "dance gives us strength and energy as a group"' "otherwise we are alone". One woman said that through dance, the refugee community can collectively express their message: "There is hope for integration". That woman, aged twenty, was attending with her four year-old. Many participants have suffered facial and body mutilation and trauma. To see them laugh, relax, focus and learn, is significant. To conduct contact work, massage, trust exercises, attention and posturing work, reminds us of the power of dance to break barriers and achieve real impact in the physical and mental lives of people living in conflict. Crucially, this work is being transmitted to the children present, especially given the support provided by members of Association Tchado-Stars, who apply NSN pedagogy to support homeless children. NSN's "pedagogy for life" is a unique model for social and cultural learning. It achieves humane sensitisation, peace, community building, and resilience. Moreover, with support from Tchado-Stars, NSN supports the integration of young learners within formal education, given strong links with local schools in N'Djamena. This project will ensure long term sustainability and replicability of NSN pedagogy in Chad and beyond.