Rivers of the World is an international art and education project delivered in partnership with the Thames Festival Trust. The two-year programme involves the pupils learning about their local river in the first year, learning about a river in another country in the second.
The project encourages young people to explore and reflect on local and global issues, giving them the experience to build the skills they need for life and work in a global society.
Since its creation in 2005, Rivers of the World has been delivered in 35 countries around the world, currently including Malawi, Kenya, Palestine, Morocco, Ethiopia, Sudan, Lebanon, Tanzania & India and across the UK.
In Tanzania, 40 students from 5 schools in Dar es salaam and Bagamoyo, participated in this initiative. Students from the Dar-es-salaam schools used the Msimbazi river as their inspiration, while the inspiration for the students from Bagamoyo was the Ruvu River.
Working with Ernest Mtaya, a trained artist and the chairman of the art group known as Dar Art Youths (DAY), pupils learnt and gathered ideas that were channelled creatively into drawings, paintings, photographs and other visual media. These were transformed into a collection of large-scale works of art. In September 2020, these artworks were exhibited along the River Thames walkway and in schools across the UK and around the world in partner countries.
In Tanzania we created a virtual exhibition to display the artwork by our pupils. This exhibition can be viewed from anywhere in the world by clicking on this link https://rotwtz.aiditz.net/
To find out more about Rivers of The World click here https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/education-programme/rivers-of-the-world/