Afghan Mobile Mini Children's Circus: Smiles for the Traumatized Young of Afghanistan

The Afghan Mobile Mini Children's Circus is a very long name for a relatively new small scale operation that is bringing relief, smiles, laughter and perhaps even hope for better times to come for the traumatized young people of Afghanistan. There has been war waged by many different participants like The Taliban, the Russians, American and the Northern Alliance over the last two decades. In fact there has been some kind of warfare going on for longer than the children have been alive. The full effects of this prolonged time of horror can only be guessed at. What is more clear is the joy that has been brought to these children through the Afghan Mobile Mini Children's Circus.

The Afghan Mobile Mini Children's Circus was created in Afghanistan in 2002 and designed to offer relief to the beleaguered youth community in war torn Afghanistan. The Circus is made up of some professional circus artists who train young people between the ages of 5-17 to perform a variety of fun and entertaining acts. They work with young people to help them develop storytelling, puppetry, juggling, acrobatics and other child friendly performance skills.

Besides working on their circus acts, the children are also schooled in ordinary academic subjects. Most of the children that are chosen to work with the Mini Children's Circus are orphans or children who have been mentally and emotionally scarred by the long term military conflict that has become the background of their daily living.

While the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan many of the activities that are now part of the circus would have not been permitted. Most noticeably music and dance which are of course wonderfully therapeutic for participants and performers have returned full force. And in this conservative Muslim country, with the Taliban gone, girls are now permitted to participate and enjoy developing their creative skills right alongside their brothers.

The Afghan Mobile Mini Children's Circus makes its home in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. It's effect is felt in ripples that spread out from there. Youthful performers are scheduled for shows in schools in the Kabul area and beyond. For the many Afghani children who have no schools to go to and little by way of entertainment being a part of the Mobile Mini Children's Circus or at least being part of its audience allows them to escape for a short time to a much happier place.

The Afghan Mobile Mini Children's Circus has helped to expand the vision and the hope of the Afghani children by also taking them beyond the borders of their own country, an opportunity that is a rare prize to these deprived children. Circus trips have brought performing children to Japan, Germany and Denmark and showed them places where peace is a way of daily living.

Peace may still be beyond the foreseeable future in Afghanistan but the resilience of children is building little islands of peace wherever they go as part of the Afghan Mini Children's Circus.

Sources: www.embassyofafghanistan.org