Colourful holiday fun at Amoyo

The Amoyo performances attracted a full house at the Mainstream Mall Amphitheatre.

At a holiday programme run by after-school performing arts foundation Amoyo, children were introduced to gymnastics and paper mache making.

“It made Amoyo happy to hear that the majority of Amoyo children were able to spend these winter holidays away with family in the Eastern Cape. However, there were at least 40 children who told us they would be here with nothing to do,” said Kim Worrall, Amoyo’s chief executive officer and co-founder. “So we organised a holiday workshop with all hands on board.”

Ms Worrall, Nandipha Sandlana and Mandisa Qwesha founded Amoyo in 2015 as a way to keep Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu children away from harmful influences such as unhealthy sexual behaviour, gang affiliation and substance abuse.

There are 130 children enrolled in the programme.

The foundation pupils were taught how to do proper forward rolls and how to run and jump on a mini trampoline. They also learned how to start and end a small gymnastic sequence with a strong presentation.

“The development of gross motor skills is sorely lacking in most children and these classes proved to be challenging but very rewarding as the children mastered the control of these simple, important exercises,” said Ms Worrall.

Juniors on the other hand, learnt how to make theatre props from paper mache and finished off with spectacular masks.

Other activities included rhythm and dance, musical theatre classes and a photo and video editing introductory workshop, which six Amoyo teens were treated to, by design intern student Lumi Schuring, from The Netherlands.

“They were taught the basics of how to work with a professional camera, they had to script and record dialogue and were then shown how to edit all together, using Openshut editing software,” Ms Worrall told Sentinel News. “The result was brilliant, it will be airing soon on the Amoyo Facebook page.”

“This was made possible by Tinstwalo who dropped off sandwiches and fruit everyday. Amoyo friends and supporters Adam and Carrie Jones who stay in the UK, asked guests to donate to Amoyo in lieu of gifts for his recent birthday celebration.”

For more information about Amoyo classes, email info@amoyo.org or call 021 300 3297.

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