The Big Idea
Welcome to the first edition of the kARTwe Kronicles! This blog is designed to give you bite-size and timely updates on the development and evolution of the kARTwe Project. I hope you will find these blogs interesting and informative. It is aimed at growing your interest to a level that motivates you to support this project. But what is the kARTwe Project, I hear you ask. I will answer your question in just a minute. But first, let me tell you about Katwe.
About Katwe
Katwe is a sprawling slum area and informal settlement, on the fringe of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. When Uganda won independence from Britain, in 1962, Katwe was a centre of African ingenuity and entrepreneurship. Craftsmen, artisans, and technicians repaired imported electronics, cars, televisions, refrigerators, and a host of other appliances. In 2007, it was estimated that Katwe employed over 3,000 artisans and metal workers in over 800 individual small enterprises.
Since its heyday, Katwe has become an incubation chamber for crime, disease, and poverty. It is also home to an untold number of street children. The environment is a symphony of filth. It is a cauldron of stagnant water and the randomly discarded detritus of every day human existence. You can smell Katwe before you reach it because of the absence of running water or a sewerage system. Katwe has also attracted young men and women, with little education or practical skills. These low or no skilled arrivals have resorted to all manner of crime. Consequently, Katwe remains one of the highest crime-ridden areas in Kampala.
About the kARTwe Project
The kARTwe Project aims to turn Katwe, the biggest slum in Kampala, Uganda, into the biggest open-air art gallery in the country. The big idea driving the kARTwe Project is to mitigate the physical, mental, and emotional issues prevalent in Katwe through the ubiquitous use of street art. This initiative is run in tandem with a clean-up program of the slum.
The kARTwe Project is a community-centric art initiative driven by Feed a Million Mouths International (FAMMI) www.fammi.org. We use art to transform the lives of vulnerable people, particularly Street Children and Slum Children, in the informal settlement of Katwe. The kARTwe Project:
- Creates a more colourful and cleaner environment, at least, in some parts of Katwe.
- Leverages the industry and talent of the Katwe residents.
The expected results of this project are:
- A more pleasant and cleaner living environment, at least, in targeted areas of the community
- Identification of creative talent in the community
- Some alleviation of “filth diseases”
- Opportunity for FAMMI to provide some poverty and hunger relief
- More visibility of FAMMI and its objectives
- Community Participation. In Phase 2 of the project, the general community will be invited to contribute street art in their environment.
The project has two interdependent components – Street Art and Art Training. In the next blog, I will explain how Street Art can transform a community. It will also be my pleasure to explain to you how we are implementing original community art to regenerate this vulnerable community.
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