In a world of increasing polarities, it is important that children are taught harmony and empathy from a young age. To promote this very idea, Delhi-based Red Balloon, an organisation which works with young people to create leaders and advocates for social change, has come up with an interesting project.
Titled Bringing Down Walls, this project in collaboration with Goethe-Zentrum centre, led by Prateek Sethi, a Communication Designer and Cinematographer, as Creative Mentor, has brought Indian and German students together to co-create a project that aims to empower these young individuals to raise their voices for togetherness and showcase their vision for a better world.
Sethi, in a conversation with The Morning Standard, says it is an attempt highlighting the invisible social, economic, cultural or any other barriers that exist around people hampering a true experience of togetherness and unity. “The 15-18-year-old participants will go onto visualise what may ‘replace’ these walls once and if brought down, taking inspiration from the German Green Belt, (referring to the greenway where the Berlin Wall once stood).
The project backed by resource materials, will teach basic filmmaking and photography, and make simple animation videos, will work on replacing regressive mindsets with something positive,” says Sethi. Given his experience of bringing popular shows such as FAQ with Prateek and Happy Building with Prateek for young minds, Sethi features a knack to boil down difficult concepts into simple activities for kids.
According to him, “Working with kids is always exciting because the range of the responses and their imagination is infinite. They are the world leaders of tomorrow and so it becomes imperative to treat them with the same level of intelligence as one would while talking to a peer.” Sethi adds that communication is the key takeaway and a blank canvas will be offered to the kids. He says, “The idea is for them to communicate their understanding of today’s problems and concerns and come up with their unique perspective to tackle these situations.”
In a nutshell
Bringing Down Walls in collaboration with Red Balloon and Goethe-Zentrum centre, led by Prateek Sethi as Creative Mentor, has brought Indian and German students together to empower these young individuals to raise their voices for togetherness and showcase their vision for a better world.