·
Independant living
·
Job creation
Friday afternoon we arrived in Kosice with
a Dutch delegation of 14 people.
Artest members welcomed us on the airport
and took us to the town hall to see an art exhibition, made by Japanese
youngsters and youngsters from Artest-Kosice (Slovakia ) Two paintings were quite remarkable.
Peter Kalmar (director Artest-Slovakia)
welcomed the Hungarian and Dutch delegation. Gerben Lems from the Dutch organisation “Stras”
gave a lecture about how to teach practical skills to people with Down
syndrome. Modules in fire safety, housekeeping,
personal hygiene and healthy food. The audience was very enthusiastic and
interested in his program.
The Dutch and Hungarian group had diner in
the hotel.
Saturday 28th of march:
Theatre performance with Peter Kalmar's
group Artest. We started with a warming up. Everybody was invited on stage to sing and
dance with a guitar player-singer. Artest gave a performance of a Japanese
story of a fisherman on the sea! Interesting was the shadow play in which the
foreigners could follow the story! A play of good level!
In the afternoon time for improvisation theatre.
The
groups from Hungary, Slovakia and Holland started with meeting each
other by playing animals. Throughout the animal sounds,
communication developed between all the players. A free style play in which every
participant could choose his own role. Improvisation led to a full play of 15
minutes.
Impressive to see how in short time
Marijke Kots, guest director from the Netherlands, and Peter Kalmar from Artest
activated the group to play with great enthusiasm.
Tired but very satisfied we left for a pizza together with the Hungarians.
Tired but very satisfied we left for a pizza together with the Hungarians.
Sunday 29th of march:
Free program in the morning. Some
youngsters went to the Zoo! Downkids International and representative
from Artest-Slavo Svat had a meeting in which they discussed future plans!
For lunch a special Hungarian dish was
served in a museum! Not much appreciated by most guests.
In the afternoon we went to another theatre
to see Artest play "the ugly duck" of Andersen. A very nice
performance! The Hungarian, Slovakian and Dutch
youngsters played their improvisation theatre again.
Due to a smaller stage and a lot of noise
of little children playing in the back, the quality of the play was diminished.
An extra short rehearsal would have helped to get the right performance. The audience was not informed, that people
from abroad were playing!
Partners from Hungary left after the show!
The Dutch group went to a very nice
restaurant in the centre of Kosice.
Downkids International wants to thank all our Dutch guests for making
the trip to Slovakia a big success!
The open way Down youngsters approach each other and become friends is always a great joy to experience!
Downkids International
Len
Dingler chairman
Jet Stoutenbeek vice-chairman