Spark Circus 2013
Spark! Circus’ mission is to bring joy and play to refugee children along the Thai-Burmese border.
Our volunteer performers spend over six weeks every year performing for children, playing with them, teaching them games and circus skills.
We sometimes even have enough funds to contribute materially to the community where we see we can make a difference.
Here are some pictures from our journey….
Spark’s 2013 team of volunteers – all paying their own way, donating their own time to work in difficult circumstances, and they keep smiling! Well done Andrea Russell and Spark Circus! But mostly, thank you to our many friends supporters and contributors to thank for making this possible.
This year we saw over 5,000 children. How do we measure our success? Simply… are they smiling? Are they playing? Are the having more fun than the law allows?
The border between Thailand and Burma is a strange place – part surreal, part too real to deal with… And here over 150,000 refugees and displaced persons eke out a living for themselves and their children.
Sweet smiles… at a school near Pokra on the border
A rapt audience…captivated and amazed.
Watching our day show…. and loving it!
Jumping for joy at Future Light Orphanage
Poi for little ones… laughing and playing!
Hoops are us… every school we visited gets a donation of hoops and other toys to keep the fun alive all year round.
April, our team leader for 2013.. great smile, great performer, great heart…
Spark performances 2013
Spectacular fire and light shows at night and fun bright day shows by day… Our shows are designed to delight and to inspire…
Spectacular snakes – long ropes of fire make amazing patterns
Swirls of colour with LED hoops
Performing for a school in a teak forest
At Nupoe refugee camp
Volunteers and audience enjoying time together
A balloon sword fight at Nupoe camp
Day show performance for a school near the border
For a small audience at a special needs school in Mae Sot
Prayers before our first performance at Agape orphanage
Balloons, clowns, face paint, puppets… all good fun!
The audience from behind….
Teaching skills to children
After our shows, we teach group games, dance, movement, yoga, hooping, juggling and flow arts.
Day shows are followed by fun workshops to engage children and teach them dexterity, creativity and physical awareness. Children at Nupoe refugee camp stretch with Nikki
Group games including relay races are exciting and a fun way to play with large groups of children – here at Nupoe refugee camp
Mai, our balloon artist from Bangkok teaches Kendama – or ‘Maiball’ as we nicknamed these fun wooden toys that reward practice, patience and dexterity
Sonja shows older students from schools and technical colleges how to teach workshops using different circus tools like these simple bamboo staffs
Dave teaching a yoga workshop to older students and teachers
Group games with obstacles courses
Even the smallest of children can learn motor skills from simple games like juggling with scarves
Before a night show, there’s always time to keep the young audience engaged with hoops
Lauren teaching hoop handling
Poi (made from tennis balls and socks) are easy to learn, and take years to master. Here Brent is leading a beginners poi workshop
What’s it like to join the circus?
Volunteer performers raise money in their own communities, pay for their own expenses and gift their time and creativity to perform for children and teach them circus skills. Fire portraits of performers by Vincenzo florama.
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- Swirls of colour with LED hoops
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- Spectacular snakes – long ropes of fire make amazing patterns
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- The audience from behind….
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- A balloon sword fight at Nupoe camp
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- Volunteers and audience enjoying time together
-
- Balloons, clowns, face paint, puppets… all good fun!
-
- Prayers before our first performance at Agape orphanage
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- At Nupoe refugee camp
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- Performing for a school in a teak forest
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- Smiling for the camera….
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- For a small audience at a special needs school in Mae Sot
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- Day show performance for a school near the border
-
- Poi (made from tennis balls and socks) are easy to learn, and take years to master. Here Brent is leading a beginners poi workshop
-
- Even the smallest of children can learn motor skills from simple games like juggling with scarves
-
- Before a night show, there’s always time to keep the young audience engaged with hoops
-
- Lauren teaching hoop handling
-
- Children at Nupoe refugee camp stretch with Nikki
-
- Group games with obstacles courses
-
- Group games including relay races are exciting and a fun way to play with large groups of children – here at Nupoe refugee camp
-
- Students from schools and technical colleges learn how to teach workshops using different circus tools – here Sonja shows them how to work with simple bamboo staffs
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- Dave teaching a yoga workshop to older students and teachers
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- Mai, our balloon artist from Bangkok also teaches Kendama (or Maiball as we nicknamed these fun wooden toys that reward practice, patience and dexterity)
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- Borderline’s Ma Yi is one of our great contacts in Mae Sot and arranged a visit to a border school, and our workshop for older students at Light School. Here we hand over our music system and miscelleneous goodie bags for distribution in the schools.
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- The herbal medicine clinic in a remote village we visited, built from local materials, but Spark! paid for a corrugated iron roof.
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- Nam Tok School had to close last year, and only through the hard work of Krio Hiruno Onlus and Nadia’s personal dedication could it re-open. Spark volunteers voted to support five children for a year. The children in this area are particularly vulnerable and if they can be safe at school, it allows their parents to be able to find work.
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- Part of our music system, generously donated by Tracey Northcott and Vinny Walleen via our Indiegogo campaign, was in turn donated to Borderline, a community collective, who will hire it out for events to raise funds.
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- Just add children!!!
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- For this remote community we later voted to pay for a roof for their new herbal medicine clinic, and a watertank to create a herb and vegetable garden.
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- What’s better – giving or getting? We had an amazing day visiting a small community across the Thai Burmese border where we kinda lost the plot – who had the most fun?
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- Coloboria Birmania, a Spanish NGO we work closely with, asked for musical instruments for one of their schools, and we tested all the local recorders we could find. Thanks to volunteers Lauren and Brent and Marcella Trentacosti who also raised additional funds to buy more musical instruments!
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- We were very touched by the plight of the children working on the dump, and provided all the children with wellington boots before the rainy season via The Best Friend Organisation.
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- Yay! More giving!
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- Besides gifting circus toys, Spark! also donates to material needs when we see how a little cash can make a huge difference. We voted on where we thought our contribution could make the biggest impact.
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- At the end of our tour, Spark!’s old computer was handed over to the dudes at the technical college STTC.
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- After an overnight stay in the church in Mae Klok Ki, we leave toys for the children of the community to play with.
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- Another school donation kit – this time in the Pokra area.
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- After our day show and workshops at Naung Bodeng, a school in a teak forest, a chance to hand over toys and fruit for the children to the head teacher.
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- Spark’s mission is to bring joy and play to refugee children along the Thai Burmese border… We spend over six weeks and see over 5,000 children. How do we measure our success? Simply… are they smiling? Are they playing? Are the having more fun than the law allows?
-
- Watching our day show…. and loving it!
-
- Sweet smiles… at a school near Pokra on the border
-
- A rapt audience…captivated and amazed…
-
- Three hoops is not enough!
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- Parachutes are great splashes of colour and fun for all…
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- Just add hoops for instant joy!
-
- Hoops are us… every school we visited gets a donation of hoops and other toys to keep the fun alive all year round.
-
- Poi for little ones… laughing and playing!
-
- Jumping for joy at Future Light Orphanage
-
- One balloon, and this kid’s day is made at Mae Tao Clinic….
-
- April, our team leader for 2013.. great smile, great performer, great heart…
-
- The border between Thailand and Burma is a strange place – part surreal, part too real to deal with… And here over 150,000 refugees and displaced persons eke out a living for themselves and their children.
-
- We peform for, donate to and sometimes even have enough funds to contribute materially.. for One Dream One World, a street shelter, we brought fruit trees, donated toys, and enough funds for them to build a new playground and buy a camera to blog with…
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- Dude, check that out!
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- Spark’s 2013 team of volunteers – all paying their own way, donating their own time to work in difficult circumstances, and keep smiling! Well done Andrea Russell and Spark Circus! But mostly, we have so many friends supporters and contributors to thank for making this possible. Please be patient while we update our site…
Donations of toys and more….
We leave the schools and communities we visit the richer for our gifts of time and creativity, but also we gift toys, musical instruments, art supplies and sometimes even contribute to supporting materially where we can
After our day show and workshops at Naung Bodeng, a school in a teak forest, a chance to hand over toys and fruit for the children to the head teacher.
After an overnight stay in the church in Mae Klok Ki, we leave toys for the children of the community to play with.
What’s better – giving or getting? We had an amazing day visiting a small community across the Thai Burmese border where we had to ask ourselves the question – who had the most fun? Photo by Vincenzo Florama.
For One Dream One World, a street shelter, we brought fruit trees, donated toys, and enough funds for them to build a new playground and buy a camera to blog with…
The new playground – just add children!!!
For this remote community we gifted a roof for their new herbal medicine clinic, and a watertank to create a herb and vegetable garden.
The herbal medicine clinic was built from local materials, but Spark! paid for the corrugated iron roof.
Any free time? Volunteers tape hoops to donate to schools…
Preparing gift bags to donate. We fill them with creative toys, art supplies and musical instruments…
Hoops being shipped from Bangkok for distribution. In 2013 Spark! spent over $2000 on hoops for workshops and to donate to schools.
The convoy of vehicles about to set out from Mae Sot for a three day trip to visit Nupoe refugee camp carrying all our personal gear, all the circus toys we will donate, our performance gear, fuel, gifts of blankets and bedding, and our 20 volunteers!
Coloboria Birmania, a Spanish NGO we work closely with, asked for musical instruments for one of their schools, and we tested all the local recorders we could find. Thanks to volunteers Lauren and Brent and Marcella Trentacosti who also raised additional funds to buy more musical instruments!
We were very touched by the plight of the children working on the town rubbish dump, and provided all these children with wellington boots before the rainy season via The Best Friend Organisation.
Yay! More giving!
At the end of our tour, Spark!’s old computer was handed over to the dudes at the technical college STTC.
Borderline’s Ma Yi is one of our great contacts in Mae Sot and arranged a visit to a border school, and our workshop for older students at Light School. Here we hand over our music system and miscellaneous goodie bags for distribution in the schools.
Our portable music systems, generously donated by Tracey Northcott and Vinny Walleen via our Indiegogo campaign, was in turn donated to Borderline, a community collective, who will hire it out for events to raise funds.
Besides gifting circus toys, Spark! also donates to material needs when we see how a little cash can make a huge difference. We voted on where we thought our contribution could make the biggest impact.
