Center for Psychological and Sociological Research( CIPS). It allowed us to realize the education and training needs and interests of the adolescents in the community. In January we started with a workshop on creative drawing by the facilitator Joel Martinez with 18 teenagers. The workshop was specifically oriented to recreational education through thematic expression regarding the respect in the interpersonal relationships, violence and gender and race discrimination, and the ways to solve interpersonal conflicts. Teens learned new techniques using different materials for their work, which give more expressive force. At the end there was a contest between the participants with their respective works. Everyone was excited and a key factor was moving the event from the community to a rented space in El Vedado.
The workshop in full swing
Most of the works dealt— in very different ways— with the violence and how it manifests itself in daily life. One of the girls had lost her father due t coancer less than a year ago. She performed her job as a postcard of love for her mother, who is in the terminal stage of the same disease. While this child saw violence manifested in the very processes of illness and death, others tried to show their best feelings through hearts, musical notes, warm and soft colors... Other reflected oppression, violence and discrimination through the national symbols such as the Cuban flag or the name of Cuba, in drawings with bars and ships at sea. Thusly they showed their dissatisfaction with the social environment and the few opportunities for their future. The workshop demonstrated that the techniques of creative work serve to express oneself without censorship. After evaluating the works, the jury presided by Joel selected the best drawings in quality and content. They were rewarded on the basis of composition, tension and rhythm, which are the determining factors in the sense of time, format, style, message and use of color. While the jury was deliberating, the guys enjoyed a cultural moment with Saman-
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