Friendships - II

Theatrical activities are a great means of interpreting conflicts between children and young people at Hummingbird. A serious conflict can often be visualised and reflected upon to the point of solution in an entirely different manner than if just left to foment in a prejudiced environment. Our aim is that children in a conflict situation are able to revert this to friendship with no harsh feelings afterwards.

Cultivating friendships at Hummingbird is a most important preventive measure against the escalating violence in communities like ours. Learning to resolve conflicts without aggression is not as easy as one would expect because we live in a society where children stand face-to-face with beatings and even killings, which are often the “normal” solutions to inter-personal or gang conflicts in their own neighbourhoods.

It is quite common for children in our community to replicate the actions of their older peers when it comes to resolving conflicts. In many cases parents even support violent actions by their children against other children, to resolve a conflict. Due to the “macho” dominance in Brazilian society there is a lot of pressure from both parents and colleagues towards children in support of this kind of masculinity. Parents feel it is embarrassing or “sissy” for their children to back out of a conflict, especially if some other kid has insulted or hit out at their child. Their worries for negative repercussions later on against their child will often force children to act harshly for fear of being picked on at a later stage in life. Unfortunately “a fight to the bitter end” is pretty much the norm our kids are up against when it comes to resolving personal or group conflicts.

The Hummingbird Activity Centre was created as a preventive tool against such violent tendencies in communities like ours. So by intermingling children from all different social realities we have actually created a mirror of our own community, so typical of most communities in the urban periphery of the mega cities in Brazil. The big difference being that inter-personal conflicts will be resolved on an entirely different level in a safe and unprejudiced environment, where the children won’t face the negative pressures enforced upon them by colleagues and family and will feel satisfied with the solution once reached.

Hopefully this kind of positive behaviour will be replicated in their homes, schools and communities