Just over a year ago, the young Peruvian Danny Cruz* stood at a crossroads in his life. He was not on good terms with his father. Life in the poor district of Lima offered him hardly any future prospects. He found support and visions at the organisation Asociaciòn Civil Etnoartes. Today he is working hard and purposefully towards the realization of his dream, a future as a professional circus artist.
Irene Bush, Specialist Centre for Psychosocial Support
Danny Cruz* day starts early, at 4am. Every day he gets up at this time and goes to the bakery where he works until noon. After that he has to hurry up to get to the circus school of the Asociaciòn Civil Etnoartes in time for his lessons. Life in the poor quarters of the Peruvian capital Lima, where Danny Cruz lives, is marked by poverty, violence and crime. Given the high unemployment rates in these quarters, the future prospects for young people are particularly poor. There are hardly any leisure activities for them, which is why many of them join a gang. For some, these soon become a substitute for family life due to the lack of family ties.
Training as circus artist
Even Danny Cruz could have gone this way. "Especially the constant quarrels with my father, who called me a good-for-nothing, weighed heavily on me," he recalls. Instead, he joined the organisation Asociaciòn Civil Etnoartes, a partner organisation of terre des hommes schweiz, which the artist Cesar Aedo founded in 2011. For half a year Danny Cruz has been completing his 2-year training as a circus artist at Etnoartes.
Created by a successful circus artist
Cesar Aedo is an internationally successful circus artist, who learned his trade with Marcel Marceau in Paris and was discovered by Franco Knie in 1984. As an internationally renowned circus artist, he has been invited by Circus Knie as well as by all the great 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 quarters of the capital Lima.
Through artistry to a self-determined life
The artist training Danny Cruz attends includes art, dance and theatre courses as well as workshops on communication, self-esteem, decision-making and identity. In this way, the organisation promotes the personal, social and artistic skills of the young people. Through the training of physical skills and the intensive cooperation with the other members of their group, the young people also develop other important qualities for a self-determined, satisfying life, such as endurance and discipline, qualities that Danny Cruz constantly demonstrates in his daily programme.
Being able to recognise and use your own potential
In addition to job and artist training, he went a step further and, together with 29 other young people from Colombia and Peru, took part in the first training course in the Solution Focused Approach (SFA) in South America - a further training course developed by terre des hommes schweiz together with the child and youth psychiatrist Theres Steiner for young people from difficult circumstances. The projects supported by terre des hommes schweiz each accompany young people who have many strengths and competences but of which they are not aware. Through the solution-oriented approach, they get to know their potential and learn how to use it to improve their life prospects. In further training, the participants learned to integrate this working method into their everyday life and in their work with other young people. Despite the multiple burden of job and artist training, 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 was already present at half past six in the morning during his acrobatic exercises. When asked what the circus school and his further training brought him, he answered: "They showed me what was not going well on the streets and made me aware that I was in bad company before. I got many answers to burning questions of my life, my goals became clear. I want to work as a circus artist. And I realized how I can realize my dream step by step."
Being a role model for his siblings
Prior to his further training in SFA, Danny Cruz looked to the future with despair. The change he has now made in this one year is enormous. He has been accepted into the circus school and has moved from his home to a very small room closer to the school. He has also found a job in the bakery, which allows him to support himself with modest means. Sometimes he even manages to put some money aside to visit his brothers or to invite them to the circus school, because "especially to them I want to show now that they too can make their dreams come true.
*Name changed
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