|
 The
International Day of Hope was inaugurated on the 17th February
2006, at Mumbai. It is an annual event organised by the Movement
which brings together children of the domestic workers’ groups
along with child workers, drop-outs, rescued and rehabilitated
children, street children, orphans and children groups of other
NGOs.
This Bal Mela welcomes children to enjoy themselves and encourages
them to ‘hope’ and express their dreams and aspirations for
themselves, their families and for their country in drawings,
sculpture, letters and poems. Children are invited to visit stalls
put up by NGO representatives with information on their rights and
education/vocational training.
Puppet Shows, Magic and Film Shows brought out the evils of
superstitious beliefs and posters are displayed to show children
the ills of working at a young age. Cultural Programmes are
performed emphasing their wishes and dreams for a better tomorrow. The festival is celebrated globally in various parts
of the world and the plan is to spread this dream across all
continents. The Golem will remain a source of strength for
children to work towards the fulfillment of their dreams.
 The Golem
 The Golem is a wooden, gigantic statue of about 4m high (11ft) and
about 2.5m broad. It is a symbol of strength to vulnerable
children. The Golem is a therapeutic approach for children to
dream and hope for their future. Traumatised children find it very
difficult to entrust their hopes to anyone. So the Golem is their
friend. The giant stretches its arms open to welcome these
children. Symbolically, the head of the Golem may seem as
‘smiling’, ‘melancholic,’ ‘stern’, and ‘engaged in conversation’;
yet its body appears frozen in time, standing tall and erect with
no visible body language but surely an invisible agony.
Traumatised children relate with this aspect of Golem as they too
seem frozen in time and their bodies go into shock. They seem
dazed, some hardly speak a word, many may appear unaffected on the
outside. The hatch in the chest of the Golem opens doors to its
inner being. This symbolic space is analogous to the ‘sacred spot’
of every individual’s inner being. When children are encouraged to
express their wishes and dreams and place them into this hatch,
they are symbolically getting in touch with their inner being.
This encourages a dialogue between humans and their inner selves.
The Golem then becomes a mentor between humans and healing.
Meaning and Origin
The word ‘Golem’ is used in the Bible to refer to an embryonic or
incomplete substance. The story of the Golem was fist printed in
1847, in a collection of Jewish tales entitled the Galerie der
Sippurim, published by Wolf Pascheles of Prague.
The artist of the Golem is Koen Vanmechelen. He, alongwith Dr.
Peter Adriaenssens from the Confidential Centre for Traumatised
Children, K.U. Leuven, Belgium, brought the the idea of the Golem
to reality for the present day world. |
