Barefeet Theater

Barefeet offers children and youth at risk an opportunity to have their voices heard, as well as a channel through which to express themselves. Barefeet is made up of young artists, most of who were formerly on the streets, who are now working as artists/facilitators and managers with various responsibilities. They run a series of artistic modules focused on issues affecting vulnerable kids, from physical and emotional abuse to HIV/AIDS. Throughout the year, the group puts together a series of outreach events and workshops to help vulnerable kids participate in creative activities, such as theatre, art, dance, music, and storytelling.

The project is designed to be an uplifting project to transform the lives of street children and orphans by using performing arts as a way of engaging youths who have suffered through poverty, drug use, or other traumatic issues. As part of their training in the Barefeet Centre Workshop Programmes, the children have to work together to stage performances for their communities, using the skills and information they gained during the workshop sessions. The workshop facilitators and children produce several performances during the year, culminating in the annual 'Barefeet Festival' every October where each of the centres performs for their peers and the general public.

Every other year since 2006, the group's performances culminate in its annual Youth Arts Festival, a vibrant 10-day event at the end of August where children from across Zambia meet up to sing, dance, and perform. The main objective is to use performing arts as a means of allowing vulnerable children from Lusaka, Kabwe, Kitwe, Ndola and Livingstone to interact with other children of similar background, to highlight the dangers of living on the streets, and share basic information that is necessary for survival on children’s rights, HIV/AIDS, and drug abuse.

Prevention workshops have been hosted by Barefeet since 2007. In August 2009, the organisation received funding to run a street life prevention programme using theatre for development intervention workshops as their tool. Through the 12-month period, Barefeet conducted artistic workshops providing contact with 1,010 at risk children and carried out sensitisation activities focusing on issues affecting children in the targeted communities. The three modules in the curriculum covered topics in children’s rights, health and environment, and culture. The workshops were designed to enable the participants to develop physically, mentally, and emotionally, to inspire and engage their creativity, and to equip them with necessary information and life skills for survival.

Poverty, Child Development

Barefeet Theatre started in 2006 when McGuigan, a young artist from the north of Ireland, left Europe to pursue his dream of taking a one-man street show to Africa. He embarked on his mission in South Africa, where he spent six months before heading north. But one month into his stay in Zimbabwe he was mugged and without most of his belongings, McGuigan had to get to the nearest Irish embassy, which was in Lusaka. It was there that he found someone who was working with street children by providing workshops in a center called Fountain of Hope in Lusaka. It was then that the founder members of Barefeet began offering acrobatic workshops with children at the Fountain of Hope Drop In Centre, Kamwala. From these initial workshops, performances and the previous years' festivals, Barefeet has grown organically and rapidly. The project now works with thousands of children, ages between seven and twenty in five cities across Zambia.