Thank You to The Sam Griffiths Foundation

Now that we're back in the UK, Tie -Dye Drama would like to say a HUGE thank you to the Sam Griffiths Foundation, who sponsored us with an amazing £1000 towards our projects in Sri Lanka! This generous grant allowed us to take on two very different yet equally exciting projects; firstly at Tea Leaf Vision with young adults and secondly at Child Action Lanka with younger children.

The Sam Griffiths Foundation is a charitable trust set up in honour of Sam, my school friend and a remarkable young man who died in 2009, aged 16. Sam was positive, happy and brimming with enthusiasm for life. He was thoughtful and kind, with a genuine concern for the welfare of others. Sam had a well-developed sense of fairness and was known for his ability to make others laugh. He was brilliant with people of all ages but had a particular affinity with younger children and the foundation hopes to continue his legacy by finding ways to support existing charities who help the young help the young.

The generous donation we received from this heartfelt fund has indeed been essential in allowing  us to help other young people in Sri Lanka. Our work with Tea Leaf Vision provided opportunities for the 18-24-year-olds that took part to explore and tackle some of the most difficult and painful social problems in their communities using a creative outlet: drama.

We were deeply impressed by the level of commitment and honesty of our participants during the workshops and in their final performances. Our methods are firmly rooted in our passion for appreciating the individual voices of our participants. The final performances at Tea Leaf Vision came entirely from the voices of our participants, emerging through a careful process allowing them to release and reflect upon their own and others' experiences in a safe space. As a result we feel very proud of the confidence and ownership the students demonstrated over their final performances.

At Child Action Lanka our project focused on using drama to teach English and, importantly, improve the confidence and  self-worth of the extremely poor children in the communities of Batticaloa that were so heavily fractured by the 2004 tsunami and long civil war. In our workshops we saw the children transform from cripplingly nervous to playful, comfortable young humans.  We felt we were witnessing these children experience the pure creative joys of play and imagination, all developed in a space in which their words, sounds, voices, shapes and ideas, were all utterly appreciated and welcomed.

We really can't say thank you enough, as the money we received not only contributed to accommodation at, and transport to these projects and communities, but importantly it has allowed us to provide  resources that allowed the young people we worked with to gain as much as possible from our workshops. In particular, the money helped us provide lesson plans, instruction manuals and extra classes for the teachers at both charities to help them feel comfortable running drama exercises themselves, continuing the dramatic legacy for future generations of young people in these communities.

I know Sam really loved drama and I feel so honoured to have the special opportunity of using this amazing art to contribute to his legacy all the way in Sri Lanka.

Find out more about the charity at: www.samgriffithsfoundation.com