THEIR FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS

Their  future is in your hands. A phrase that whishes to voice the importance of early stimulation in children.

Being early childhood experiences so determined in life we have decided to drive, in collaboration with the association Friends of Fez orphans and the Amal Center for abandoned children, a training course for the staff of the orphanage.

Although the program of estimulation is in principle applicable to all the children of the center, it has wanted to pay special attention to cases that present a disability due to the special needs they entail.

Focused in a fundamentally practical way, the training course led by psychology Mercedes Castillo Gómez has sought to guide the professionals of the center both in regard to the development of stimulation sessions, as the design of specific programs adapted to the characteristics of each child.

We hope that this  is only the first step of a long path of collaboration that will allow abandoned children to live a full life and a future full of opportunities.

It is necessary to mention the good reception on the part of the management of the Center Amal and friends of the orphans of Fez, which has facilitated the organization of this activity. Our appreciation also for the professionals of the center and Fouzi Abdelhak, a Spanish teacher who has been acting  as a translator, whose good work has facilitated the work of all.

Last but not least, we thank Manuel Pedrero Paz for the preparation of the communication on visual stimulation and the assistance of Auxiliadora Santos with his advices on issues related to personal autonomy.

ASOMBRASDOS

AUSWICHTZ. PRIMO LEVI

The author of If this is a man, the Italian scientist Primo Levi, states in the introduction that he writes in order to "provide documentation for a serene study of some aspects of the human soul." The document is about his own shuddering experience in the concentration camp of Auschwitz and about souls, those of the victims and the executioners. But he also confesses that it is the need for an inner liberation that led him to write this work, the same as all those who survived.

Then begins the description of life in the Lager: its physical structure; Its sinister gear; Hierarchies; Infinite and implausible regulations; Hunger and cold; The suffering that so intensely erases everything else, even the homesickness of lost homes; The unnecessary cynicism of some warnings (in latrines, "cleanliness is health", at the very entrance to hell "work will set you free"); The confusion of tongues; An infinity of laws and taboos ... And the death that, he affirms, begins with the shoes. It is this everyday life of horror that most shook me. After a few days of unbelief ("we received the first blows: and the thing was so unexpected and foolish that we felt no pain, neither in the body nor in the soul, only a deep stupor"), he, like the others, assumed that Universe of absolute dementia. From that moment Levi says that the only task was to seek his own benefit and learn the proper means to achieve it. The executioners oppress the victims, and among them the privileged do the same with those who are not. And here it makes sense to question the title of the work: if a man is the result of Nazi extermination machinery. "We have reached the bottom. We have nothing of our own; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; If we talk, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand us. They will take away even the name, "and the spontaneous compassion towards the neighbor, the empathy towards its pain, because the pain itself is so great that it destroys the very essence of the human soul.

In The truce the author recounts the long and amazing homecoming after liberation. A return we could imagine as a happy release from suffering. But what has remained of the man still has to face situations of extraordinary hardness. At least that was Levi's experience: months and months of stays in different fields, difficult to survive, infinite journeys on foot and in trains that stopped a thousand times and traveled miles in vain looking for the way to reach the destination. These pages are an impressive picture of characters and incredible situations, an agile reading of a painful adventure, but very illuminating human behavior. The third book of the trilogy, The Drowned and the Saved, is a deep and personal reflection on what happened. It analyzes the psychological mechanism that led to the Nazi holocaust as the most refined and brutal form of systematic physical and mental destruction of human beings in contemporary history. He ends the book by commenting on some German letters after the publication of If this is a man, and warning of the false prophets, the high-pitched and hollow words of violence, which must be ruled out in any case.

Levi speaks of a recurrent dream among the inhabitants of the Lager: already at home and among their loved ones they begin to tell what they have lived; At the end they realize that no one listens to them, no one attends to the narration of their sufferings. Let's not be part of that nightmare, let's always have ears open to testimonies like this. Out of respect for the victims, for the selfish need to remember the horrors that never have to be repeated.

A TALK WITH MAMADOU AND A TALE FROM SENEGAL

Inma and Mamadou chatting

Inma opened the doors of his house and Mamadou took us with him on his treacherous journey from Dakar to the Canary Islands. With him we also discover a surprising tale of Senegal and the fortunes of life in a small village where the jungle is within easy reach. Thank you Mamadou for your availability and nearness. To discover with surprising simplicity and a smile on your lips so interesting aspects of your country.

YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN

Can you feel nostalgia for what has never been known, for what has never been lived? I don’t know another name to what this reading produced to me.

United States, 1960s: the struggle for racial equality moves to the streets and the author is actively involved in it. Earlier, he told us of his humble origins. Son of emigrants from Eastern Europe; His first youth in which he knew the hard work of the worker; Then his enthusiastic participation in World War II as a bomber. And from here the most fascinating: the surprising personal evolution of Howard Zinn. I find it comforting to see how we have the capacity to develop, change, discard attitudes, change, improving in the end. He studied with a scholarship at the university and managed to become a well-known teacher and an activist of peace and social justice. His intellectual lucidity led him to analyze carefully what governments and powerful present as inevitable need, the lies they use to convince and manipulate. He became a brilliant writer and lecturer who defended disobedience to power, imposition, war and imperialism.

You can be neutral on a moving train is written in first person, but the humility of the author makes it a choral work: many names appear on their pages and sometimes it is a bit overwhelming. Some of them are of internationally resonant characters and others (those who produce me most tenderly) of anonymous characters capable of shuddering gestures of generosity and heroism in defense of what is right.

The description of this environment of struggle, of surrender to a cause, is what has moved me the most and is what has produced me this kind of nostalgia, which contravenes its definition in the dictionary. In these times when we lose guarantees that have cost so many years, so much suffering to get, I would like to open this book again and, as if by magic, that force, that union against the odds, that unconscious struggle of the danger that their pages describe invade us, expand, permeate our minds and our lives; And then we suddenly understood that peaceful struggle is the only way. That small gestures are responsible of the great changes we have in our modest hands to build a better and more just world. But for this, we must be anything but impassive, indifferent to the injustice exercised against ourselves and also against others (social welfare is not possible if it does not reach all without exception). Great truth of his title, which, perhaps unintentionally, can be understood almost as the moral of this great book.

NOSTALGIA: Melancholy sadness caused by the memory of lost happiness.

BOOKS FOR A SHARED PLANET

There are books that move because they have been lived. For the lucidity of who writes them as well. There are people who are a luxury to know, even through their books. Books that open our eyes. People that go beyond and show us the way to live in this, a Shared Planet.

The PLANETA COMPARTIDO LIBRARY recommends titles that have made us reflect, that have moved us to action. Books that, we are convinced, will not leave anyone indifferent.

CD NANAS FOR A NEW WORLD

After two years of preparation, it is ready the CD “Nanas para un mundo nuevo” that PLANETA COMPARTIDO has produced with such enthusiasm. There are our lyrics, the songs that we have composed and the arrangements finished. The recording sessions were left behind and, with the edition finished and the design ready, we offer it to all those who want to sleep their children with them. But we can not forget that this is a project that goes further, which aims to go further. The donations received will allow us to finance the ongoing projects and undertake new challenges. At the moment, it is our priority to start an Early Childhood Care Program by facilitating the training of caregivers at the Amal Center, an orphanage in the city of Fez (Morocco) where children are awaiting adoption. We hope that Faiza, Salima, Sajid and many others enjoy this record. It is made for them.

Nanas for a new world contains 18 tracks with original lyrics and music. There are many songs designed for babies, but we have not wanted to forget the children who are "already big" and can understand the lyrics. They also like songs ;-)

Orders can be made by contacting us at planetacompartido@gmail.com indicating in the subject "Order CD nanas".

Listen to a selection of nanas in this video. 

Our thanks to Pinto, Álvaro, Leslie, Adrián, Esen and Sibel for giving us their sensitivity and leaving such a beautiful track on this album.

Thanks to the teacher, writer and friend Carmen Gil Martínez, who has written a magical, beautiful and funny Nana.

Thanks to Isaías Morente, Manuel Franco and Manuel Jesus Linares who, even in the distance, helped us so much with the first scores.

Thanks to our precious babies, who unknowingly brought us inspiration.

Nanas for a new world is registered with a Creative Commons license that allows to share the works with other people whenever the authors are mentioned, but the compositions can not be changed in any way nor to make derivative works. It is also not allowed to use them for commercial purposes.

FRIENDS OF FEZ ORPHANS

To feel as our own the needs of others is certainly easier when we are on the ground, when we know who should face them. In our case, the meeting came from the hand of Zakia Elyoubi, president of the association Friends of Fez Orphans, which made possible our visit to the Amal Center. In it we met some of the abandoned children who live there waiting for adoption as well as the work of this entity.

Friends of Fez Orphans works with this orphanage to promote the socialization, learning and therapy of children while providing training for their caregivers. After analyzing with Zakia the needs that her young organization and the children of the center have, PLANETA COMPARTIDO prepares, in a first phase, a Training Plan for caregivers of children with disabilities that guides them about the importance of early stimulation in childhood and provide them with the resources to launch an early care program. Although such a plan aims to influence disabled children, it can be extended to those who do not present any handicap, so that both can lead a happy childhood and a full adult life.

SCHOOL IN CAMPAIGN: ARMORED FRONTIERS

New educational centers are added to the PLANETA COMPARTIDO campaign, Armored borders, part of the program “Drawings to change the world”. This time, the drawings of the Orokieta Herri Eskola and the Zarauzko Udala have made us admire the creativity of the children. We thank the members of their educational teams for their contribution to the task of making this a better world.

A CHAT WITH TOMOKO AND A STORY FROM JAPAN

Tomoko and Minerva

With Tomoko, from the bank of the Guadalquivir, we traveled to his native Japan to tour the rice fields where she liked to look for animals when she was a child. With her, we talk about music, the reasons for a person to go to live at the other end of the world and, of course, stories. The story that brought us, her story, made us run fantastic adventures. Surely, just like us, the children of your country listen astonished.

A TALK WITH NAHID AND A TALE FROM IRAN

Nahid and Mari

Nahid arranged to meet us in his tent or, as his mother tells him jokingly, in his second house, due to the time he passes there. He had several stories for us and we heard them sitting on low chairs. We will not forget the musicality of the poems in Persian language that transported us to dream places. Nahid unraveled the words and entertained us with her stories that, although they were stripped of the music in translation, kept all their charm. With her, we enjoyed tea and learned about the Baha'i community and their beliefs.

A TALK WITH CORINA AND ALEXANDRU AND A TALE FROM ROMANIA

Corina and Alexandru

This friendly couple welcomed us to their home to make us participants of their memories and avatars, telling us what their life was in Romania and how they came to Spain. Also they told us a story. The history loved us all. As a farewell they gave us a brief concert of violin and piano. Thank you.

A TALK WITH IBRAHIM AND A TALE FROM SENEGAL

Ibrahim and Laura

Although bad weather didn’t allow us to sit under one of the greatest trees of the Parque de Maria Luisa, to honor that other tree next to which, a child Ibrahim listened to stories of a storyteller in the village of his grandparents, not for that reason was less captivating. Ibrahim told us a story from Senegal in which the animals are humanized in a story with a moral.

A CHAT WITH ADELA AND A STORY FROM PARAGUAY

Adela and Mari Carmen

Meeting with Adela was the first, and her history of terrible monsters opened the door of a project, "Tales in the bag", which promises to be very enriching. Conchi and Mª Carmen lived an unforgettable afternoon in which Adela hold their hands to draw fantastic creatures and spoke to them about her life, her childhood, the present and her desires for the future.

INNOVATION AND CHANGE AT SCHOOL

Aware of the importance of teachers as agents of change in school and society model, PLANETA COMPARTIDO has participated in the "Meeting of Collectives of the Province of Seville, Innovation and Change in School" organized by the collective Forum for Another School of Seville. It has been shown our educational proposal that based in the artistic creation, advocates the formation of critical, creative and committed citizens.

It has been a very interesting experience and an opportunity to learn, discover initiatives and find people to collaborate with.

TALES IN THE BAG

This project of PLANETA COMPARTIDO is about breaking with the stereotyped vision offered by the media about the countries of origin of the migrants coming to Spain. With this aim, we want to make known a part of their cultural wealth, using the traditional fairy tales as an example. However, fairy tales are much more than that. They are shared place and personal experience. Fairy tales are the mother, the father’s voice, or the grandmother’s affection, and in the case of Tales in the bag, they are the thread that will make us share emotions, memories and life experiences with the narrators of these stories.

We are convinced that art can be a vehicle for understanding and encountering between the people of the world, a path towards leaving aside clichés and unjustified mistrust. Therefore, we want this to be a space for encounter, in which talking will lead to recalling childhood, knowing the narrator and, finally, to the fairy tale.

A documentary about this process and a book based on the interviews with a selection of the fairy tales will be the fruit of all this work.

ARMOURED BORDERS. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

 
During 2015/16 academic course ARMOURED BORDERS campaign is launched in  educational centers. The aim of this proposal is to reflect on migrations, distribution of health and solidarity.

We propose young people to take side and make their best to change the unjust reallity of our world having art and creativity as tools.

Educators can apply for the Teacher's Guide to PLANETA COMPARTIDO's Educational Area by emailing to planetacompartido@gmail.com

KAATJE JONES

Kaatje Jones is a filmmaker with a background in anthropology. She has studied in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain. She is passionate about art, music, and dance, and loves all kinds of collaboration and fusion. She tells stories of humanity and compassion that can act as a bridge between cultures. She is always looking for new ideas, projects, and ways to use film. She has work with PLANETA COMPARTIDO filming a video for the Campaign against ilegal bird traps. Thank you, Kaatje!

ARMOURED BORDERS

José Palazón Osma. Prodein

In a world where big corporations make use of the advantages offered by globalisation, closed borders play a crucial role. In a system based on the unequal division of wealth and the lack of social justice, putting limits on free movement helps the inhabitants of the selected areas that make up the first world countries, maintain their privileges.

On top of the invisible barriers raised by labour exploitation and the loss of social covering in Europe, the physical barriers show how little sensibility the governments have, as well as the indifference of the people towards the drama of those who flee war, persecutions, hunger or poverty.

Either we talk about the borders between Turkey and Greece and Bulgaria, or those between Ceuta and Melilla with Morocco, or those between Mexico and USA, miles and miles of fences are trying to stop immigrants who are looking for a better life from accessing. It seems easy to raise walls, extend fences and deploy barbed wires. Fomenting fear and inflaming selfishness is justified at the same time that intolerance and xenophobia are growing.

Hoping for a dignified job that permits us live a happy life in a secure place is something legitimate, as legitimate is to rise up against a status quo that aims to perpetuate injustice at the expense of the rights of the people. We feel closer to the working people of this world than to those who hold power, and with our work, we want to promote reflection on the phenomenon of migration: its causes, the benefits it implies and the tasks that all of us have to confront.

PLANETA COMPARTIDO - UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE AGREEMENT

PLANETA COMPARTIDO has signed an agreement with the UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE that opens the possibility for students to develop their Degree Final Projects or Master´s Thesis collaborating in projects of our organization. Thus, we make a step forward to achieve our aim of involving all the social agents in the necessary processes of change to improve our world. Their research, integrated in the programmes of the Educational area, will contribute to the teachers training and the work with children and teenagers in the Planeta Compartido School's Network.

ILLEGAL BIRD TRAPS. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

During 2014 / 15 school year it has been launched a pilot CAMPAIGN AGAINST ILLEGAL BIRD TRAPS in educational centres. 

Far away from we suposed the traps did not came as a total surprise for some students who used them or had seen them at home. Audiovisual resources helped teenagers who have taken part in the campaing Drawings to change the world to reflect, discuss and start changing their minds about illegal bird trapping.

It is our intention to contribute develop lateral thinking in children and young people and help them to be informed and take side on social and enviromental problems of our world. In our opinion encouraging divergent thinking and the search of creative solutions is not only desirable in art but it's also the best way of finding solutions in all kind of conflicts.

We congratulate IES Hipatia, located in Mairena del Aljarafe, and IES Dª Leonor de Guzmán in Alcalá de Guadaíra, for their students' wonderful drawings.

LULLABIES FOR A NEW WORLD

Lullabies for a new World CD cover

Although it would not appear to be the case, writting a poem or composing a song can help to change the world. That is what we aim to do with this lullabies CD.  Even if it's songs have been written for Candela and Paula, for Aitana, Bruno, Miguel or Manuela they are also for many others whom we don't know. For those in needs. Yes, we want our song goes far and make a difference in lives of the disadvantaged. We write lirics, compose songs and play music modestly but excited because we know we are doing everything for them.

The proceeds from the album will be entirely dedicated to PLANETA COMPARTIDO projects. All those who collaborate do it so selflessly.

NGO PLANETA COMPARTIDO LOGO

This is the logo from an Óscar Tello Morente's design that will identify our entity henceforth. It shows a hand, representing the ability of human beings to transform, and a tree, a natural environment paradigm.  Both make a color fan, reflection of diversity, in wich one and the other are completely integrated. 

INTERNATIONAL BRAINSTORMING OUTCOME

Planeta Compartido wants to thank for their effort and enthusiasm all the young people who have participated in the international brainstorming competition organised for the design of our logo. We also want them to receive our acknowledgement for their altruistic contribution, creativity and commitment to a sustainable and fair world.

The jury has decided to award the work of Óscar Tello Morente for considering it clear, fully expresive and original. The ability of his design to be reproduced in full colours, greyscale and monochrome has also been taken into account.

In addition, the designs of the following participants have been awarded an honourable mention: 

- Catalina Andrea Flores Guajardo, who sent from Chile her discreet, balanced and elegant work.

- Francisco Caballero Tirado, who has presented a fresh idea playing with polisemic shapes.

- Santos Juan Jhonatan Xocoy Velasco, the Guatemalan creator of a piece of fine and painstaking drawing.

DESIGN TO CHANGE THE WORLD

INTERNATIONAL BRAINSTORM TO FIND A LOGOTYPE FOR THE NGO PLANETA COMPARTIDO

Click here to download this bases

The NGO PLANETA COMPARTIDO, with register number 16497/1, is a non-profit, just-born entity, now looking for an image to be its sign of identity. According to its core philosophy, the logotype creation is to be integrated in a process in which a creative youth from worldwide, willing to identify themselves with the claim for a free and solidary world, can play an active role. For this very reason, it is not solely a contest. This is a convocation to participate in a brainstorm in which every participant will surely have something to offer. In order to facilitate the design work and make sure that every presented proposal understands the organization’s ideology, its view, mission and values can be found at Who we are and What we do in this blog. If you are willing to learn some more from this organization, participants can always resort to its blog, planetacompartido.blogspot.com

The contest will be regulated according to the following bases:

1. Purpose

The contest intends to get youth closer to this NGO and turn them into an active actor in the search for an image to define it.

2. Participants

Young people from every single nationality, aged 14 to 25 are welcome to participate, both individually or collectively. Two separate categories will be established: aged from 14 to 18, and 19 to 25, respectively.

3. Participation requirements

 The chosen design must be coherent to the view, mission and values of this entity.

Participants can present up to two different pieces.

The proposal does not necessarily have to include the name “PLANETA COMPARTIDO”.

It will be taken into account in a positive way if the design can be lately reproduced in both colour or black and white. It will also be appreciated if it can be used in any type of format and size (letters and envelopes, presentation cards, website, informative billboards, clothes, etc.)

Technique is free to judgment.

f. All designs must be original and unprecedented, not being possible to use, either partially or totally, a third person’s piece. Authors will be responsible for all claims regarding the originality, likeness or partial copies of the presented work.



4. How to present your design

Participants can present their proposals in both paper (A4) or digital format (JPG, TIF).

If you are willing to do so in paper, mail it to the address:

PLANETA COMPARTIDO
c/ Carlinga Nº5, 7º-2
41020 – Seville (Spain)

If you are willing to submit it using digital format, email it to the following address:

    planetacompartido@gmail.com

Emails must include “Planeta Compartido Brainstorm” on the subject.

Participants who are willing to present their piece using digital format must place their names as the document title. The also must include their whole name, nationality, place of residence, phone number and age in the email.

Schools and other education centers can forward all the proposals in one envelope indicating, on the back side of every piece, name and age of every participant, or participants. This envelope must also include the center’s information and responsible teachers, indicating a phone number and email address.

Education centers from the city of Sevilla are able to ask for members of the organization to pick the proposals up, just as long as the number of pieces is too big for its proper submission.

5. Deadlines

The deadline will be May 31st, 2015.

6. Resolution

This organization is fond to thank all participants on their contributions to this shared effort, their identification with our job towards a better world and it encourages them to continue contributing to achieve it. Even though the main goal of this is not to select winners or give prizes, a committee integrated by directive members and arts-related professionals will select the best proposals from each category, being these exposed in the website PLANETA COMPARTIDO. The proud authors of these proposals will receive a commemorative diploma in order to thank them for their participation and recognition of their talent.

The committee’s resolution will be notified to the authors either by a phone call or email, being their names also published in the website. On the other hand, if the participation has been made through an education center, the resolution will be notified to the center’s responsible.

It is understood that participants authorize the use of their name and duplicates of their piece in publications, both written and electronic, made in order to publicize the activity and spread the results.


7. Selected Ideas

Selected logotypes from each category will remain in exclusive and permanent property of this NGO which, demonstrating its authorship, will have complete freedom to use them, both partially or totally.
The Directorate will value the convenience of adopting some of the selected ideas as the entity’s logotype, although keeping in mind the importance of this choice and the necessity to have an always actualized logotype, maintains the right to:
a. Look for an alternate option to those presented proposals for the logotype’s design
b. Technically improve the logotype in order to make its spread easier.
c. Modify some aspects from the selected proposal in order to make it more adequate to the necessities of the entity

8. Final dispositions

Participation itself means the total acceptance of these bases on their totality.
Any questions, doubts or divergences regarding these bases will be solved by the Directorate of this Association, PLANETA COMPARTIDO.

Click here to download this bases