Solstice Update | Mid-December 2024 Nakivale YTC Artist News
The Lights Are On Thanks to Solar! Storybooks Turned into Mini-Zines and Online Videos. Visit to New Refugee Arrivals. And, Final Appeal for Holiday Party Support.
Welcome to the mid-December near-Solstice edition of “Nakivale YTC Artist News”! A “month-in-the-life” series chronicling a young refugee artist collective called “Nakivale Young Talent Community” in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. This and related content is located on the Refugee Artist Support Circle section of The Creative Convergence.
To catch up, read the June 2024, July 2024, August 2024, September 2024, October 2024, and November posts!
Subscribe specifically to this section for free (click here to go to your settings for subscribing to The Creative Convergence to toggle on or off subscribing to the the Support Circle). As a subscriber you receive monthly digests full of stories, art, videos and pictures featuring the struggles and successes of 15 talented emerging young refugee artists living in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Upgrade to paid and you can become part of the Refugee Support Circle; 100% of your $8 monthly subscription goes directly to NYTC to support their material costs. Plus you receive artful perks! Learn more more about that here.
Holiday Party Appeal!
We are just $150 shy of our Christmas and New Year’s holiday party budget to provide 100+ children and youth with a joyous Christmas celebration and 25+ older artists with a special New Year’s celebration.
Can you help? The best way for you to help is to contribute directly to the Nakivale TipTop Jar. Funds are managed by me and sent directly to NYTC for their celebration.
Funds will be used to provide small gifts of clothing and shoes as well as a festive atmosphere complete with music, food, refreshments, and games for the children served by NYTC.
Blank cards are still available to be purchased on my Etsy store, RainMaker Design, with 100% of net proceeds going to fund the artist collective. And, merchandise is also available for sale on the RedBubble site, like these notebooks and canvas bags. All profits go to NYTC.
Solar for Solstice! Let There Be Light!
In our last issue (November 2024), I referenced the possibility of installing solar panels on the roof of the Art Education Center. Shortly after we installed the community wi-fi, the Settlement experienced a blackout for over one week. No electricity? No wi-fi.
Loss of electricity is a regular occurrence in the Settlement. Only well-funded organizations and essential services are able to ride the rough wave of blackouts by relying on generators. Even so, fuel is expensive and out of reach of many. As a result, many go without electricity. Without electricity, there is no wi-fi and phones run out of charge. People who rely on that technology to stay in touch with each other lose those connections which can produce anxiety, particularly for our artists who rely on connections with each other and the outside world.
We were able to pull together the funds in early December to install solar on the building to bring back the light and the wi-fi. Installing solar also allowed us to put three outlets on the outside of the building, bringing the total number of outlets to 10! NYTC’s Art Education Center, in this way, serves as a free charging station for community members. This new development allows NYTC to set itself up potentially to be a computer lab (applying for that possibility soon!).
Mini-Zine Short Stories
Last month, we shared the cover pages of several new short stories written and illustrated by the older artists who serve as facilitators/trainers. We were able to produce these short stories in a miniature format as “zines”, 8-page foldable booklets.
Five stories were printed and will be folded into mini-zines for distribution to nearly 200 children on Christmas day. And, two of them have since been turned into short video books.
Another Visit to New Refugee Arrivals
In early December, NYTC artists received word that new refugees from several countries (DRC and Rwanda specifically) had arrived in the Settlement. With the arrival area just a 15-minute walk from home, Akon felt compelled to go to bring some amount of hope to them. As Akon told me, “They arrive with no hope for tomorrow. They think their life is dead. Done. I take it upon myself to go and bring some hope. There is tomorrow.”
The emotional energy it takes to go and visit is immense. In addition, visiting new arrivals dredges up the trauma that Akon faced in his own childhood, losing four siblings and four grandparents. Some artists join Akon on trips like these; others can’t stomach it.
I asked Akon why he feels compelled to go visit new arrivals especially given the emotional cost. He answered, “If I do not, who will? If we are all crying to each other, who will be the one to give hope? I go to bring a smile, to play, to help them forget their yesterday if only for a short time,” he says.
I reflect that we all are compelled in some way at some point in life to serve the pain we hold from early trauma.
This time, unlike other times, Akon shared with me 50+ (only 50 here) pictures of the children who were received as new refugee arrivals. Many were orphaned having lost their parents in their home country or along the way. These are unaccompanied minors picked up along the way by adults. Unaccompanied… Unaccompanied…!
As told to me by Akon, adults and children are dropped off and given UNHCR tarps but no food and no water and no understanding of what is to happen next. Akon’s natural inclination was to raise money to feed these children but with limited resoures of his own and my own inability to provide that level of support, the idea seemed unattainable. The larger dream was to build an orphanage and second art school. I still cannot believe how many children arrive unaccompanied and there is no orphanage to house them producing a new generation of street children barely surviving in the Settlement.
We did agree that we would try our best to raise enough funds to invite these children to NYTC’s holiday party, hoping that just for Christmas day at least they will be able to forget tomorrow and start to see that there is indeed life after point of entry. There is indeed life after transforming from Congolese or Rwandan child, child of your parents, member of your village to a refugee living in a Settlement in a foreign country.
Embracing & Manifesting the Spirit of Ubuntu
We will leave you with this energetic rendition of “The Spirit of Ubuntu”, the theme song to the
International documentary called “Spirit of Ubuntu” which is streaming in 2025 and also available with a learning guide to communities worldwide soon! The artists covered the original song, composed and performed by Pato Banton and Antoinette . NYTC is poised to become a partner to Ubuntu in the new year! More information to come soon on a deeper partnership with Ubuntu. There are exciting developments to come!Art Can Change Our World! Join the Circle!
Thank you for reading the Mid-December Solstice installment of NYTC Art News! We’ll be back in early January with a full report on December’s activities including Holiday festivities.
If you prefer to support with a one-time donation, add your tip to the Nakivale Tip Jar here! Managed by me, Emily, of The Creative Convergence. Every penny helps. Funds pooled for the NYTC collective and arts program purchase paints, brushes, paper, canvasses, and fund a food program for the children that attend free art education Monday through Saturday year-round.
