Summerhill resident Sarina Condello travels the world through her Big Little Caravan of Joy arts-based initiative that brings educational programs to vulnerable, remote and orphaned children. The program’s impetus is to empower and engage children — using the arts (dance, drama, etc.) as a vehicle to do so.
Condello just returned from Burkina Faso in West Africa a little over a month ago but has travelled to Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda and seven First Nations communities in northern Canada this year alone. Condello has now educated 10,000 children throughout eight countries and 20 First Nations communities, and each child who has taken part in her program has received 20 to 40 hours of arts programming.
The Big Little Caravan is still just a small grassroots initiative that fundraises to help bring its curriculum to children in need all over the world — a cause close to her heart. The team of four to 12 people also collaborates with a number of foundations such as Right To Play, a sports-based initiative, to pay for supplies and travels.
Her next big project in February will focus on training in-area leaders to effectively mobilize and galvanize children through the arts. According to Condello, by training and hiring regional artists, child care workers and teachers with a specialized arts-based curriculum, this dynamic program has empowered educators and children worldwide.
“The training of these community mentors or leaders is where the sustainable aspect of these kinds of initiatives take hold,” she said.
Yet Condello is aware of the risks, especially with the Ebola virus epidemic currently in West Africa.
“I weigh what’s exaggerated in the media,” she said, “and do the research before going into each area. But I also go into areas where [drug] addictions are high, as well as cases of HIV. I’ve travelled to places throughout South Africa that have the highest percentage of HIV cases in the world,” Condello admitted. “There is nothing glamorous about the kind of travel I do, at all.”
But Condello says she feels a strong sense of inner satisfaction when she sees how happy and engaged the children become during the program.
“This kind of work changes you,” said Condello, “it’s stops being about you and really gets you to focus on the children and what they get out of it.”