Playground with kids
Once a week, for a few hours after school, a group of 6-15 kids, 7-10 years old, designed new objects to play with. When we walked around the neighbourhood, they noticed the amount of trash everywhere. We decided to make games that make cleaning up more fun.
During the weeks of working together, it was amazing to see how every kid developed in their own unique way. A boy who always thought you could only be police or salesman, got incredibly excited by the idea of becoming an 'inventor'. The shy girl suddenly started knotting a basketball net without any help or reference. The siblings who couldn't sit still from excitement got their dad to pick them up earlier and earlier because he loved to help.
We tried to stay a bit on the sideline in terms of ideas and mostly be there for difficult executions. The kids were incredibly proud of their makes, especially because they really did it themselves.
Brood & Taal
After various attempts to get in contact with more woman in the neighbourhood, we asked for help from a neighbour who often dropped by. Her answer; get the men out of the room (easy!), and invite them to bake bread because you've got great ovens.
This turned out to be a success. Each week we put out ingredients and invited woman to come over, bake and have lunch together. We figured we could do breadbaking workshops. But we were the once being taught. Every woman had her own unique recipe, passed down by generations before her. Recipes were exchanged and connections were found.
As our hands were kneading the dough, the conversations flowed easily. But as soon as we stopped, many women confessed they felt insecure about their Dutch. So then, after each baking session, we would sit together and write down new or unknown words, talk about it and help each other.
It started out as an invitation to bake and turned into a weekly get together of woman sharing, connecting and learning from each other.
