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Amarti is a humanitarian project whose aim is to combine arts and humanitarian relief, in the service of populations going through moral and material crises or collective traumas : victims of war, war rape, genocide, natural or ecological catastrophes; refugees or displaced persons; street children...
HOW? . By offering a basic group of tools taken from creative art-therapy techniques : tools that are intentionnally simple, evolutive, adaptable to each specific situation, interactive and sensitive to cultural backgrounds. These tools are brought to artists, creators and commited local workers or volunteers. . By helping, if possible, revive and enhance diminishing or disappearing individual and collective local artistic potentials. . By encouraging the continuation of certain local practices or traditions of mental/spiritual healing. . By supporting preexisting specific projects or actors. ____________________
HISTORY of AMARTI
Born in 1999 in France, the AMARTI association was officially created in France in 2000, by Christine Koechlin -artist and writer, professional and consultant in creative art-therapies in humanitarian action-, with Laure Teisseyre archeologist & media iconographer - and a few others .
Preceding facts to this have been, in 1998, a series of short introductory sessions about art-therapies and creative artistic expressions as a tool for treating psycho-traumas have been performed in the Palestinian territories by C.Koechlin for female educators and social workers from villages and camps in the context of a pedagogical and assessment mission with the NGOs FAPU & UPMRC-. Despite poor conditions, the great impact of these short sessions upon participants has been claimed, as well as their strong demand to know more and immediately start using the little they had learned. Eversince then, art-therapy as we know is being practiced here and there in Palestinian Territories. Although uncompleted this experience has contributed to that. It has also definitely contributed to the creation of AMARTI in 1999. ____________________
In 2000-01 Amarti worked as co-creator and partner, for a brazilian favela community in Salvador de Bahia, of the training of educators and health/social workers in art-therapies. This action has been done within a 30 projects international research directed and funded by the Fondation de France "Restructuration des liens familiaux et sociaux dans les populations en situation de crise". The training action, being done with the local objectives of youth crime and drugs prevention, was completed with success. It gave birth to several long-term and efficient art-therapeutic groups for children and youth in crisis; to therapeutical realisations of creative pedagogies in schools; to a community network for psycho-social counselling ; and to cultural realizations (theatre, life stories) for the enhancement of community memory. From its very first year this program contributed in important positive behavioral transformations in the chidren and youth target group, as well as in wider group. Some of the trainings beneficiaries have started by themselves to organize training programs for their peers (2002) in order to enlarge the use of these skills and methods. Art-therapy workshops are integrated to the regular community work, and a new theatre-therapy groupwork for street adolescents is created in 2003 without exterior support.
Early in 2002 the Amarti team has chosen to focus on art-therapists training in Afghanistan, for the help concerning cultural rehabilitation and trauma resilience, through educational, cultural and/or health actions, in partnership with local associations.A first training project-2/3 years long- appeared late in 2002, after an exploratory mission in 2002. last news : considering difficulties in this project’s fundraising as well as important local security (*) issues -which, according to us, would compromise the possibilities of its safe and efficient realization, for beneficiaries as well as for expatriates-, its continuation has been postponed in 2004, and so far. The nature of the work we are offering doesn’t fit with important unsafe conditions for individuals. (*) 2004, several westerners expatriates have been killed in Afghanistan, and NGOs have therefore decided to restrain their local teams. The coming back of taliban’s influence is being assessed.
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