Serious Fun Committee

Social Circus Myanmar Teams

The second profile on our social circus teams in Myanmar focuses on the Scholarships for Street Kids team, a group of children who usually don’t have much chance to learn or have fun. They’re aged between 8-16 and do not go to school; instead they work for around $2 per day to help support their families.

Scholarships for Street Kids (S4SK) provides these children with out-of-school classes, giving them a chance to get an education. S4SK’s model is to encourage a community to find a venue where the children can be taught a few hours a week, then bring in teachers and resources to provide lessons. Each family receives a small payment to make up for the time the child can not work.

About S4SK and Social Circus

The S4SK children have been part of the Social Circus Myanmar project right from the start. Serious Fun training specialist Jules Howarth began teaching juggling to the children in 2014, as part of our activities leading to the international juggling festival in February 2015.

The first dry season’s workshops took place mainly in Hlegu, about 90 minutes outside Yangon, under trees in a dusty yard. Last dry season, weekly circus skills workshops took place in a crowded space in Mingaladon in the outer suburbs of Yangon. The kids have made steady progress with various props, earning passes on their progress charts and having a lot of fun.

“Most of our children are child labourers and haven’t got the opportunity to play since they have to earn their family income,” said S4SK programme director Aye Aye Thinn. “Fortunately, we had the opportunity to provide play and training in circus skills and circus arts by connecting with Serious Fun.

Benefits of Performance

As the children’s technical skills develop, so too do their performance skills. Daw Aye Aye said the opportunity to show the public what they have achieved has had a lot of benefits.

“When they had the opportunity of public performance in front of the audience, they felt proud of their existence, satisfied with their skills, aware and confident of their strengths. And they get an awareness of children’s participation, which is one of the child rights.

“They also found  out that sharing and caring for each was very important for success and happiness,” she said.

S4SK would like to establish circus teams with their students in other areas. “The (social circus) project supports our children with educational, social and emotional development,”said Daw Aye Aye.

Georgia, 1991

These two short videos show some of the juggling action.  Were you there or do you recognise someone who was? Leave a comment below.

It’s 25 years since a plane-load of western jugglers arrived in Tbilisi, capital of the newly-independent Republic of Georgia, for a juggling festival with the Georgian circus. The circus needed help and a sense of new possibilities after losing its lifeline from Moscow as the Soviet Union fell apart. The festival took place in a Soviet-era circular circus building amidst scenes of protest and political turmoil on the streets of Tbilisi.

The 163 visiting jugglers were billeted with families who met the plane at 3am when it landed several hours late from Moscow. Before leaving the arrivals hall, festival organiser Haggis McLeod briefed the jugglers on Georgia’s legendary hospitality.  Despite the hour, he said there was bound to be a table full of food and drink ready when they arrived at their host’s home. “If you’re tired, just go straight to bed, it’ll be fine,” he said, “but whatever you do, don’t mix the vodka and the red wine.”  Nobody went straight to bed.  A few people missed the warning about mixing drinks and spent the next few days in recovery.

In Georgia, hosting a visitor is an art and an honour. Being a juggler visiting Georgia in 1991 meant lots of feasts, hours of ritual toasting, and sometimes being hijacked to a picturesque village high in the Caucasus mountains instead of dropped at the circus building in downtown Tbilisi.

The festival was a feast in itself, with superb skills exchanged, understandings reached, and entertaining public shows which boosted the Georgian circus coffers. However for many participants, it was the once-in-a-lifetime moments shared with the Georgian people that are still remembered, 25 years later.  And the pogo sticks on sale in Rusteveli Avenue for only 50 pence!

The fun, adventures and mutual understanding shared between visiting jugglers and the people in Georgia inspired the formation of the Serious Fun Committee in 1993.  The festivals staged by Serious Fun volunteers in Thailand, Laos and Burma/Myanmar have been based on the same sort of interaction.  Everybody gives their energy and skills and everybody benefits.   We owe a great deal of thanks to the Georgian festival for showing us the way.  Serious Fun – it’s a state of mind.