Video by Jared Seltzer 2011. Voice over by Jessie Barr and Calvin Hunting Productions.
Asmi sent a three person team for five weeks in December 2010 and January 2011 to conduct a Drama Teacher Training Program and hold Youth Empowerment Drama Workshops. In collaboration with LYDIA, the project trained six new Liberian teaching artists, provided arts programming for over fifty youth, and created curriculum for an issue-based youth drama program that will build community, facilitate dialogue, and address local issues like teen pregnancy, sanitation, gender inequality, and domestic violence.
LYDIA (Liberian Youth: Determination in Adversity) is an NGO dedicated to empowering repatriated Liberians through literacy training and drama workshops. Formed by a group of ex-refugees in 2008, LYDIA’s founder, Alfred Kayee, wanted to create a space for Liberians, like himself, who returned home after 15 years to find everything they once knew destroyed. Almost two decades of civil war devastated Liberia’s infrastructure, education system, family structures, and workforce. As the country regains its footing, LYDIA wants to inspire young adults to be involved in their communities. LYDIA believes that through drama, young people can find a sense of belonging and process their experiences of displacement and war.
LYDIA inspired the creation of Asmi International. Click here to read about Asmi’s origin.
