Angèle Essamba Home Foundation Providing Art Therapy

International Mon 10-05-2010

Angèle Essamba Home Foundation Providing Art Therapy
By Larry Bate Takang/Africancolours.com

Cameroon like almost everywhere else in the third world has its share of homeless individuals and families. The Capital Yaoundé as a metropolis sees this trend more than other smaller cities or rural areas. But it is the children that roam the streets of Yaoundé have been the focus of Netherlands based Cameroonian born artist-photographer Angèle Etoundi Essamba.

With the goal of improving the living conditions of Yaoundé street children, Miss Angèle Etoundi has established the Essamba Home Foundation which aims at introducing a series of creative activities to help them escape their isolation, stress and dismal living conditions.

Cameroon Street children

^{Yaoundé Street Children}

These activities will be carried out through a centre called the ART & WELCOME CENTRE, where creative exercises will be carried out to help act as a therapy. Apart from the therapeutic aspects of creative exercises and lessons, the long term goal is to provide a purpose in life for these underprivileged children so that they can build self-respect and acquire skills that will help them realize better living conditions.

It is estimated that there are almost one thousand street children in the capital city of Yaoundé. This phenomenon and dramatic increase is as a result of the socio-economic crisis that hit many countries in the1980’s.

Most of these children live as beggars in order to survive or are forced into petit crimes and occasionally into prostitution just to provide for their needs. Recently, they have become the object of pursuit by the police who have been ordered to "clean the streets".

Creating the ART & WELCOME CENTRE has been welcomed as a vital gesture to help curtail idling around for these children and give them a point of focus especially at a time when their conditions are made worse by the police crackdown.

In order to attain maximum results and incite the kids to artistic expression, the Essamba Home Foundation will utilize the expertise of both Cameroonian and international artists. It will as well collaborate with existing and established local organizations which already direct their efforts and activities towards alleviating the conditions of either these Yaoundé street children or street children in general.

Angèle Etoundi Essamba was born in Douala, Cameroon but grew up in the capital, Yaoundé (Cameroon) and in France. She arrived in the Netherlands in 1982 where she materialized her passion for photography at the Nederlandse Fotovakschool (Dutch School for Professional Photography).

Etoundi Essamba has gained international recognition with exhibitions all over the world. Her first exhibition in 1985 at was at La Maison Descartes in Amsterdam. This was followed by many others in Cameroon, South Africa, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Algeria Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Cuba, Mexico and New York, Pennsylvania and Florida in the United States to name a few.

Orange melted by Angele Etoundi
^{Untitled by Angele Etoundi Essamba}

Her work has appeared in a number of publications and is also represented in several public and private collections.

The inspiration to start the ART & WELCOME Centre in Yaoundé was sparked by her regular visits to Cameroon. While there, she was adversely affected by the rising number of street children and the hopelessness that went with it.

She therefore decided to take action. She acquired a plot of land near in Mbankomo, in the suburb of Yaoundé where she intends to build not only the ART & WELCOME Centre but as well a hostel to accommodate some of these children.

Miss Angèle Etoundi Essamba has since January 2010 embarked on both International exhibition tours and a fund raising drive to see this project come to fruition. In early 2010 she will exhibit her unique photographic art pieces during a series of Street Exhibitions in Valencia, Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao in Spain.

Her ART & WELCOME Centre project in Cameroon will be formally launched in March 2011.

Larry Bate Takang is a Journalist and Editorial Director of the African Celebrities Magazine ACM) based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (labatak@gmail.com).

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Your Comments

virginia ryan: fantastic and inspiring project.as an artist and trained art therapst,i really admire what you are doing with this centre-good luck

Omondi Olonde: I have been getting updates from African Colours for about a year now.I feel it is a noble venture and is especially valuable for me as an artist.I haven't been able to see any cartoonists though.Is it part your policy?Thank you for the good work though.Good luck.

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