How to boost mental health with dance

DW (English)

With Cheza Cheza in Nairobi, Kenya, Francis Odhiambo is enhancing the mental well-being of children in the city's slums. He teaches them to dance and pass it on.

Transcript

00:00how can dancing boost your mental health? Francis Odhiambo knows best. Since

00:06defeating his own demons with dance he wants to teach slam kids how to improve

00:11their health and lives with cool moves. For me if it were not for dance right

00:17now I don't know where I'll be. Maybe I'll be in jail or even died at a

00:21younger age. I'm here today because of dance. I can express myself as a leader

00:26today and that's thanks to dance. Born and raised in Kibra, one of Kenya's

00:32largest slums, Francis faced crime, drug abuse and violence from young age. Before

00:39we get to know why he decided to support the kids of Kibra, let's have a deeper

00:43look at how he managed to escape his own fate. So many people know Kibera as one of

00:49the largest slums and all that and so many things go on but growing up when I

00:53was a little child it was very fun. At that time until I reached my adolescent

00:59age because at this point is when I was realizing the things that I love, things

01:03that I want to do in life and one of those things that really stood strong to

01:07me was dance. At that time I was really struggling with sense of belonging. I

01:11didn't find a place where I could say this is where I belong and with the gang

01:15it felt like oh actually these people love me. At some point again lost two

01:20close friends of ours because of theft. So every day I was waking up with fear

01:24of will I die today, will everything go well today and all that and when that

01:30happened actually was the moment of obligation for me to think on what I

01:35want to do with my life. The only thing I had at that time was dance. But how

01:40exactly did dance become his anchor of hope for better in trauma-free future?

01:45Through dance I found confidence. Through dance I could be myself. We found like

01:51scholarship to go back to school, went back to school, finished and we are now

01:55back here in the community what do you want to do and that's how we started

01:58dancing with kids. And my dad he wasn't okay with that. My dad to him dance was

02:04about prostitution. My dad to him dance was about drug abuse and getting into

02:10crime and all that. To prove his parents wrong, Francis founded Chiza Chiza which

02:15means playful in 2018. Today the group enjoys an international reputation but

02:23it was a long road to get there. What were his biggest challenges? From start

02:29as my dad was, most of the parents were not believing in dance. Some of them

02:34still are not believing in dance up to now because most of the parents were

02:37like no dance doesn't make sense. So we have different programs in Chiza Chiza.

02:41We have community program which basically focuses on the community part

02:47and building safe communities. Then we have building happy schools and this is

02:52mainly focusing on schools and making schools a safe place where children look

02:57forward to go to. Then we have counselling as a program. Then we have

03:02Dress2Educate where this now takes children back to school. The ones that

03:05cannot go to school because of school fees issues and other challenges. Then we

03:10have our other side of community awareness that we called Endless Energy

03:16Dance Festival. So these are festivals that we do every year to create awareness

03:20in the community on how dance could help mental well-being and all that. Dance is

03:27more than just simple movements. Music and movements also encourages us to

03:32express our emotions and thus process them better. Dancing releases and

03:39offends our happiness hormones. How has Francis managed to make his very

03:43personal form of dance therapy accessible to children throughout Kenya?

03:47Now we are 3,000 children and how we've been able to do that is we go into

03:52community, find people, train them. Then they open like hubs. So we have like

03:57different hubs across Nairobi. But also we have Kakuma Refugee Camp where we

04:03just opened and it's going on amazing. If you go out here, you play music, children

04:10will dance. Then dance unlocks that part of me connecting with myself and just

04:15enjoying life and just expressing myself and just being safe on being me. I joined

04:21Cheza Cheza at December 2018 and since I joined Cheza Cheza, it has helped me to

04:28find my true self, to know the person I am and to know what I want to be in

04:36future. As the community of dancing kids expand, Francis and his team recognize

04:41and train talented dancers to become community-based dance coaches. They go

04:46beyond just teaching dance. Let's check how they help transform emotional

04:50suffering. I'm seeing kids having high self-esteem. Kids are able to talk out

04:55things. Kids are able to solve conflict. Kids are able to have empathy in them.

05:02And also what I've seen is our kids are now becoming professional dancers.

05:06As you've seen in the videos, our kids are now able to make decisions. For me, I'll say

05:10that a success story. From a humble beginning in his own home, Francis has

05:15grown his initiative considerably. Today, they impact 2,300 children each week and

05:21have 17 centers offering a total of 3,165 classes. Cheza Cheza

05:28works with various schools to offer a dance curriculum to children who are

05:32unable to attend one of the centers. Does this mean that Francis has reached his

05:37goal? By 2027, if we can be able to impact more than 10,000 children across Kenya,

05:43that will be a dream come true. In Kenya, Francis Odhiambo will be remembered as

05:48the hero who employs dance to make a difference.

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