Outreach to Glencairn with the Rainbow Dreams Foundation
On Saturday afternoon 16 March , our Light from Africa art therapist Tessa Whyatt and resident artist Chuma Maweni, travelled to Glencairn for an outreach workshop with 72 vulnerable kids and 12 carer’s from the Rainbow Dreams Trust.
The afternoon activities were part of their holiday camp, highlighting the importance of self-esteem, self- respect and taking responsibility for yourself.
Kids ages ranged from 8- 20 years old and were split into 4 groups in which they played ice breaker games. 
The clay session required every child to make a life boat representing themselves and adding clay symbols of all the qualities they admired in others but want for themselves into this life boat. 
Every boat will be professionally glazed and fired before being returned to the child to remind them of the special afternoon and their goals of that day.
Educational Clay workshop at Art in the Forest for kids from BEEP
On Saturday 16 March, 22 kids from the organisation BEEP (Beyond Expectation Environmental Project) enjoyed a morning workshop at Art in the Forest, Constantia Nek.
Lissa Claassens and Tessa Whyatt designed different exercises that incorporated this organisations values such as recycling and caring for the envirnoment into a fun therapeutic clay session. The kids could connect to nature in our garden, learned how to recycle clay, did various meditative pinch pot exercises, ice breakers, breath work and a clay class. 
They were asked to think about qualities they admired in other people that they would like to have for themselves. They then chose an animal that represented these qualities and made it out of clay in our studio, which they will be able to take home after the final firing. This will remind them of all they have learnt at Art in the Forest during the workshop and to help them reach their aspirations of the day. The entire morning’s activities plus a healthy snack and juice is offered free of charge to these amazing teenagers!
Dominican School for the Deaf start weekly clay sessions at Art in the Forest
12 vulnerable children from the Dominican School for the Deaf in Witteboom are attending weekly clay classes at Art in the Forest every Wednesday. Assited by two translators, our resident Artist Chuma Maweni is teaching these kids different techniques in working with clay. Each term new kids from the school will attend classes for their art outing.
These outreach sessions are completely free for the school and we are delighted to be supporting and welcoming a new organisation to
Light from Africa
Foundation outreach programs.
And Chuma is even learning sign language! :-) 
New Outreach Space and Revamped Gallery at Art in the Forest
Seeing that the clay therapy programs sometimes require quiet and reflective environments, Art in the Forest shifted some tables, made some magic and created a new little outreach space for more intimate processes for our Carer’s and vulnerable kids.Our gallery has also been revamped and restocked so please do visit us to view!
