Trust Greenbelt – our way, as a festival community, of supporting projects in faith, arts and justice both in the UK and globally – has been working for a couple of years with Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), an organisation operating in the Khan Younis area of the Gaza Strip.

We've written before on the blog about the work of this brilliant organisation, and now CFTA's partners at Christian Aid have prepared the following video about the work of the Association in empowering young people, and fighting against child labour:

Donations for Trust Greenbelt come from the collection after Communion at Greenbelt, but you can donate throughout the year at this webpage »

The Greenbelt Campaign, seeking to draw attention to the situation in the Holy Land, is in its third year. We're going to spend some time on the blog looking at why we're running the campaign, what it has accomplished to date, what's still to be done, and how you can get involved. We're going to post nine blogs – one a month between January and September – in a series called Nine Months, Nine Lives, which will highlight how the situation has touched people's lives both in the UK and in the Middle East.

This month, we feature a report from Bait Al Thaqafa, a project in the Gaza Strip supported by Christian Aid and funding from Trust Greenbelt.

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Children in the Gaza Strip have been affected by violent conflict physically, psychologically and socio-economically. They also face significant pressures to become enrolled within armed groups, and the conflict has affected their opportunities in life and attitudes towards society. With half of the 1.4 million people in Gaza being under the age of 18, Bait al Thaqafa aim to support the population of the region to reduce the impact of conflict upon these children.

Located within Khan Younis, a refugee camp of more than 200,000 people, the project gives children and young people access to basic educational and recreational opportunities, fostering essential life skills to enable them to cope with the effects of conflict through communication and non violence.

Greenbelt has supported Bait al Thaqafa to give children access to educational and social activities aimed at helping overcome the effects of conflict, enabling those children to be active in rebuilding communities and creating a more positive future. It aims to achieve this through leadership training (communications skills, moderation, coordination, children’s rights, and the use of art in expressing opinions and issues), drama and puppetry, painting and exhibitions, radio programmes, photography and film workshops, and workshops on advocacy. In the long-term, the project wishes to improve understanding in approaches to working with children affected by armed conflicts.

And the project has already had much success. One example is a young girl called Shatha.

Shatha is twelve. She was referred to the project after a school counsellor noticed that she easily lost focus on her studies, and that she was isolated from her fellow pupils. It was discovered that her father had died when she was young, and did not have a supportive family atmosphere to help her get over this loss. Shatha was enrolled in the Psychosocial Support Programme, where she was supported by project staff and other children. She gradually began to recover her self-esteem, feeling safe within the project environment, and began to express her inner feelings, thoughts and fears through drama and theatre, narrative expression and storytelling and other activities. Shatha’s family have noticed the difference, as she became more confident and outgoing, and Shatha has now become a young leader, ready to continue with her plans for the future.

Shatha’s story is by no means an isolated event. Programmes Manager Hussam Shehada has seen the impact that the programme can make in the lives of individual children:

I once had the chance to facilitate a discussion and debate on child-parent relationships, when parents and their children came on stage to discuss social issues and behaviors, like quarrels at home for example. I asked Mahmoud, one of the young teenagers, to help me facilitate the discussion and encourage the audience to participate in the discussion. When the debate started, the audience was listening but was not taking part.  When I asked Mahmoud to do something to encourage them to speak, he stepped down from stage and started walking among the audience,  asking them questions about their names and why they are there. He warmed them up and a few seconds later, the full audience were extremely motivated to participate in the discussions. It was so much fun to see how that young leader Mahmoud could catch the attention of the whole audience and encourage them to speak out during the discussions.

Another story I have is about a group of young girls who are full of life and enthusiastic about life and the future. The girls were sitting in a circle discussing about community work, trying to find an idea to raise with their community. It was clear that the girls had something to offer but their thoughts were not clear. A CFTA facilitator came alongside the group and helped them come up with an idea. Their example inspires me a lot – they were lost in the beginning, not knowing what to do and then step by step with a little bit of support they managed to achieve a wonderful job and help themselves and help others, too.

Trust Greenbelt donations from the Sunday Communion service and online throughout the year help support the pioneering work of this organisation, as they do great things to comfort and encourage children in some of the toughest circumstances in the world. We hope that our continuing support of this organisation dovetails neatly with the aims of the Just Peace campaign, looking at the effects of the ongoing conflict, whilst attempting to find justice for all in the Holy Land.

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For more information, resources and to keep in touch with the campaign, go to greenbelt.org.uk/campaign

For more on what Christian Aid is doing in Gaza, see the CA website.

Each year, Greenbelters give tens of thousands of pounds during the communion service to Trust Greenbelt. One arts project we have funded, a film called the Road to Bethlehem is now complete.

Here is what Tipping Point, have to say about the film:

"This documentary is a personal story filmed over four critical years in the life of Bethlehem. This most famous little town also happens to be Leila Sansour’s hometown. She left it as a teenager, pledging never to return. But in 2004 she went home for Christmas. The journey changed her life.The film is shot over four Christmases in the life of Bethlehem as, piece-by-piece, hundreds of slabs of concrete are lowered into place to build a wall that will seal the city from the outside world. The story is told through the eyes of the film’s director. It is her own very personal story.

To hear the latest news from Leila read her blog, or for a small taster of the film watch the clip below."

Find out more over here and checkout the trailer below.

There's still (just!) time to catch the One Voice exhibition at The Foundling Museum in London, which features artwork by the participants in the Street Child World Cup, as facilitated by Trust Greenbelt recipients Momentum Arts.

The exhibition runs until Saturday (9th October), and brings the vibrant and challenging work created by street children to life with interactive and challenging settings by Momentum. The Foundling Museum is an apposite home for the exhibition as well, as it was established in 1739 to address the rapid growth in the numbers of street children in London.

The Amos Trust-supported exhibition points out the historical parallels by featuring contemporary work alongside the classical paintings, such as a life-sized portrait of Bulelwa Ngantweni-Hewitt, co-founder of Amos' South African partner Umthombo Street Children, hanging alongside Hogarth’s 1740 painting of Thomas Coram, founder of the Foundling Hospital.

For some of the images from the exhibition, see the Guardian's picture feature on One Voice.

The Foundling Museum is at 40 Brunswick Square in London, near Russell Square tube. The exhibition is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Tickets are £7.50, concessions £5, children up to 16 years free.

Trust Greenbelt makes cash awards to organisations working creatively with faith, arts and justice, and it's always great to hear of supported organisations creating exciting work.

Close Your Eyes And Dance were supported by Trust Greenbelt in their work using dance as a means of exercise, empowerment and expression for blind and partially-sighted adults. Now, they're doing some free taster workshops in "Tango Argentino" in Balham, London.

Led by Adriana Pegorer, the thesis is that "if you can walk, you can tango"! Adriana teaches basic steps, how to lead and follow. She writes:-

Walking in partnership in an embrace on the exquisite music allows you to gently exercise in a friendly atmosphere. Come and liven up those hot summer nights with some fun and sensuous Tango!

It's taking place every Tuesday night in July at Thomas Pocklington Resource Centre, 1C Yukon Road, Balham, London SW12 9PX. The evenings kick off at 6.30pm, and last two hours.

Places are limited, so booking is essential. Phone 0208 675 4246 to book a space, or for more information. You can also bring a sighted partner, if you'd like.

• CDN Diversity Award for Excellence in Creative Output: (presented to the film)
• DADA Community Arts Award (presented to the band)

Congrats, congrats, congrats!

Open between 11 & 4 on the weekends leading upto Christmas its well worth a visit if you're anywhere near Leeds. You can see some pictures from the private view on Friday night on the exhibition blog, and there is a review with a short movie here

Curated by Si Smith,who is also one of the team programming the Visual Arts at Greenbelt, the exhibition has works by several greenbelt artists past, present & future and has been supported by trust greenbelt.

photos by barnaby aldrick

Congrats, congrats, congrats, to Heavy Load who have been nominated for a diversity award.

Heavy Load is a punk bank made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities. Trust Greenbelt granted funding to raise the profile of this group through the distribution of their 'Wild Things' CD. Heavy Load' has been short listed for a CDN/BroadcastNow! Diversity Award – for programmes that encourage diversity in mainstream media. The Award is judged by an online public vote over the next 9 days – so spare a minute to vote for their film over here.

If you'd like to see the film it's available now at a bargain price from Amazon or a slightly higher price on the Heavy Load website- but with the added bonus of adding your support to their brilliant work.

Just one small slice of the amazing Trust Greenbelt story and what the Festival's giving has enabled so far.

We talk to Greenbelt Trustee Paul Wilson about how the Trust Greenbelt idea was born, Greenbelt Treasurer Jonathan Smith about how much money Trust Greenbelt gives away each year, Rachel Duncombe-Anderson about Epic Arts' work, Liz Dorton about the community arts project that was Hull Fludde, Chris Verney about the work of Integrate Leeds, Ruth Bennett about LCET's 'See Me' exhibition, Paul Richards about Heavy Load, and Meryl Doney about WallSpace's 'Visionaries' exhibition.

Click here to download the .mp3 podcast file (30.9MB)

Or stream the audio using the player below.

Timings – so you can dip in and out if you want to:

00.00 – 02.16 – Intro
02.16 – 05.22 – Paul Wilson – on how it all began
05.22 – 06.25 – Jonathan Smith on giving the money away
06.25 – 08.22 – Rachel Duncombe-Anderson, Epic Arts
08.22 – 10.05 – Charlie Ryder, The Anne Peaker Centre
10.05 – 12.06 – Liz Dorton, Hull Fludde
12.06 – 15.13 – Chris Verney, Integrate Leeds
15.13 – 17.00 – Ruth Bennett, See Me, LCET
17.00 – 20.28 – Paul Richards, Heavy Load
20.28 – 22.30 – Meryl Doney, WallSpace
22.30 – 23.30 – Paul Wilson's take on Trust Greenbelt so far
23.30 – 25.21 – Outro

Resources and links

Trust Greenbelt
Click here for more Trust Greenbelt stories and to give online.
Click here for how to apply.

Epic Arts
Click here for Epic Arts' website
View a video of their work in China here:

Ann Peaker Centre and Charlie Ryder
Click here for the Anne Peaker centre website.
Click here for more on Charlie Ryder's arts work with offenders.
And click here to see Charlie being interviewed about prisoners' artwork on Channel 4.

Hull Fludde
Click here for more about Hull Fludde at Greenbelt.

Integrate Leeds
Click here for the Integrate Leeds website.

LCET, See Me
Click here for the LCET, 'See Me' website.

Heavy Load
Click here for the Heavy Load website.
View a video of the band here:

WallSpace
Click here for the WallSpace website.
Click here for more about the Visionaries exhibition at Greenbelt 2009.

Soundtrack

Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
Dear God – Monsters of Folk
Lucky Gilchrist – The Unthanks
Living By Water – The Unthanks
The Fixer – Pearl Jam
Never Far – Miriam Jones
Be With Me – Foy Vance
Counting Screws – Heavy Load
USA – Heavy Load

Credits

• Narrated by Grace Wroe and Garry Rutter
• Mixed and Edited – bigJohn Noble
• Written and Executive Produced by Paul Northup
• Co-production – bigJohn Noble
• Narration recording – Iain Archer
• Field Recording – Paul Northup

Pictured at the head of this blog post, mosaic work at Integrate Leeds 2009