CapoeirArab

More about CapoeirArab

Capoeira is inseparable from community, and inseparable from social inclusion. At heart it is a group of people playing together and respecting one another. There are no winners or losers in Capoeira. It creates its own unique environment of mutual support and respect where kids can connect and play with one another, as well as their trainers. Regular and consistent experience of this kind of environment is of paramount importance to psychosocial development for kids from excluded groups like refugees as many have lost this.

This is what we provide. Capoeira is a skill for life. It teaches participants to think differently about themselves, others and the world around them. It fosters creativity and initiative, playfulness and quick thinking. It gives participants the ability to re-imagine their world – not as a place of limitation and exclusion, but one pregnant with possibilities whose realisation takes only a friend and some flat ground. To imagine people not as opponents but as partners.

These soft skills are critical in the workplace and in business success, and help include participants in employment and entrepreneurship. Capoeira is inclusive on a number of different levels. Firstly, people can participate together at different levels of activity – whether playing and dancing in the centre, twanging a musical instrument, or just clapping and watching, everyone is part of a unified group in their own comfortable space. Family members often join the circle, girls and boys play together, Syrians and Iraqis forget their differences. In an environment of controlled aggression and non-threatening play in the centre of the roda, big can match small, girl can match boy, inexperienced can match experienced in a safe and cooperative spirit. It promotes inclusivity within and between communities.