Just over a year ago, the young Peruvian Danny Cruz* was at a crossroads in his life. He was not on good terms with his father. Life in Lima’s slums offered him few prospects for the future. He found support and vision at the Asociaciòn Civil Etnoartes organization. Today, he is working hard and purposefully towards realizing his dream of a future as a professional circus performer.
Irene Bush, Psychosocial Support Center
Danny Cruz’s* day starts early, at 4 o’clock in the morning. He gets up at this time every day and goes to the bakery, where he works until midday. After that, he has to hurry to get to the Asociaciòn Civil Etnoartes circus school in time for his lessons. Life in the slums of the Peruvian capital Lima, where Danny Cruz lives, is characterized by poverty, violence and crime. With high unemployment rates in these neighborhoods, the future prospects for young people are particularly poor. There are hardly any leisure activities for them, which is why many of them join gangs. For some, these gangs soon become a substitute for family due to the lack of family ties.
Training as a circus performer
Danny Cruz could also have gone down this route. “The constant quarrels with my father, who insulted me as a good-for-nothing, weighed heavily on me,” he recalls. Instead, he joined the organization Asociaciòn Civil Etnoartes, a partner organization of terre des hommes schweiz, which was founded by artist Cesar Aedo in 2011. For the past six months, Danny Cruz has been training with Etnoartes for two years to become a circus performer.
Founded by a successful circus performer
Cesar Aedo is an internationally successful circus performer who learned his craft from Marcel Marceau in Paris, among others, and was discovered by Franco Knie in 1984. As an internationally renowned circus artist, he has been invited by Circus Knie as well as all the major circuses in China, Russia and America. Despite all his travels and successes, he has never forgotten his roots in Peru, which is why he founded the Asociaciòn Civil Etnoartes to support disadvantaged young people from the poor districts of the capital Lima.
Through artistry to a self-determined life
The artist training that Danny Cruz attends includes artistry, dance and theater courses as well as workshops on communication, self-esteem, decision-making and identity. In this way, the organization promotes the personal, social and artistic skills of young people. By training their physical skills and working intensively with the other members of their group, the young people also develop other important qualities for a self-determined, satisfying life, such as perseverance and discipline – qualities that Danny Cruz constantly demonstrates in his daily program.
Recognizing and using his own potential
In addition to a job and training as an artist, he went one step further and, together with 29 other young people from Colombia and Peru, took part in the first solution-focused approach (SFA) training course in South America, which terre des hommes schweiz developed together with child and adolescent psychiatrist Theres Steiner for young people from difficult backgrounds. The projects supported by terre des hommes schweiz support young people who have many strengths and skills but are not aware of them. Through the solution-focused approach (SFA), they learn about their potential and how they can use it to improve their life prospects. During the training, the participants learned how to integrate this working method into their everyday lives and their work with other young people. Despite the multiple demands of his job and training as an artist, Danny Cruz, like his colleagues, successfully completed this course in February of this year.
I was in bad company before”
During the last training module in Colombia, Danny Cruz could be found doing his acrobatics exercises at half past six in the morning. When asked what he gained from the circus school and his further training, he replied: “They showed me what wasn’t going well on the street and made me realize that I was in bad company before. I got a lot of answers to burning questions in my life and my goals became clear. I want to work as a circus performer. And I have realized how I can realize my dream step by step.”
Being a role model for his siblings
Before his further training at SFA, Danny Cruz was despondent about the future. The change he has now made in just one year is enormous. He has been accepted into the circus school and has moved out of his home into a very small room closer to the school. He has also found a job in the bakery, which allows him to provide for himself with very modest means. He even sometimes manages to put some money aside to visit his brothers or invite them to circus school, because “I especially want to show them now that they too can make their dreams come true.”
*Name changed
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