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Join us on June 6!
We are hosting a double film screening and Q&A with the filmmakers and Saharawi activists to help raise money for Sandblast!
This special fund and awareness raising event will help support Sandblast Arts, a UK arts & human rights charity promoting the voices and visions of the Saharawi from Western Sahara.
All funds raised will go towards Desert Voicebox; our after school programme providing music education and English language lessons with Saharawi children in the refugee camps in Algeria.
After the screenings, we will be hosting a Q&A discussion with UK-based filmmakers Carolina Graterol, Daniel Petkoff, Peter Shields, and local Saharawi activists. The Q&A will be hosted by Paula Beegan Haddad from the Cambridge African Film Festival.
Thanks to the generous support of Act One Cinema, we will also be using their fully accessible gallery space to showcase Saharawi art and photography, a silent auction, traditional Saharawi tea ceremonies and more. The gallery space will also be open to the public from May 30-June 9 with a photography exhibition and sale from Sandblast founder Danielle Smith.
Get your tickets now through Eventbrite!
This special fund and awareness raising event will help support Sandblast Arts, a UK arts & human rights charity promoting the voices and visions of the Saharawi from Western Sahara.
All funds raised will go towards Desert Voicebox; our after school programme providing music education and English language lessons with Saharawi children in the refugee camps in Algeria.
After the screenings, we will be hosting a Q&A discussion with UK-based filmmakers Carolina Graterol, Daniel Petkoff, Peter Shields, and local Saharawi activists. The Q&A will be hosted by Paula Beegan Haddad from the Cambridge African Film Festival.
Thanks to the generous support of Act One Cinema, we will also be using their fully accessible gallery space to showcase Saharawi art and photography, a silent auction, traditional Saharawi tea ceremonies and more. The gallery space will also be open to the public from May 30-June 9 with a photography exhibition and sale from Sandblast founder Danielle Smith.
Get your tickets now through Eventbrite!
London-based Sandblast charity seeks to raise awareness of the Saharawi refugee plight in SW Algeria and build support for their self-determination cause. Through education, arts and skills development projects, Sandblast equips the refugees, especially youth and women, to become self-reliant and able to reach audiences more widely to tell their story, promote their culture and advocate for their rights.
Our ongoing core project is Desert Voicebox, providing English and music education to over 60 Saharawi refugee children in an after school programme. It spans 4 years of primary school and trains local women to teach and run the programme.
An invisible story
“ What is it to be a refugee? Who are we? We know we are Saharawis, but only we know. The world does not know we exist. Being a refugee is like being outside this world" (Fatimetu Shagaf, born in the refugee camps, teaches Spanish to women )
The Saharawis are indigenous to Western Sahara, an ex-Spanish colony in NW Africa, which is officially considered Africa's last colony. In 1975, instead of fulfilling their independence aspirations as Spain withdrew, their homeland was forcefully annexed by neighbouring Morocco, which claimed the territory as its own. (This claim was rejected by International Court of Justice ruling of Oct 16 1975). The Moroccan invasion and occupation not only led to armed conflict between the Polisario front-the Saharawi national liberation movement and the Moroccan army but also resulted in the mass displacement of the Saharawi civilian population, who became refugees in the desert region around Tindouf, in SW Algeria.
Today, a third generation of Saharawi refugee children are growing up with few prospects of a better life. According to the latest UNHCR 2018 report, over 170,000 Saharawis live in 5 large refugee camps, 80% being women and children. Aid dependent for their survival needs, they endure harsh living and weather conditions and a lack of opportunities to develop and be heard.
“ What is it to be a refugee? Who are we? We know we are Saharawis, but only we know. The world does not know we exist. Being a refugee is like being outside this world" (Fatimetu Shagaf, born in the refugee camps, teaches Spanish to women )
The Saharawis are indigenous to Western Sahara, an ex-Spanish colony in NW Africa, which is officially considered Africa's last colony. In 1975, instead of fulfilling their independence aspirations as Spain withdrew, their homeland was forcefully annexed by neighbouring Morocco, which claimed the territory as its own. (This claim was rejected by International Court of Justice ruling of Oct 16 1975). The Moroccan invasion and occupation not only led to armed conflict between the Polisario front-the Saharawi national liberation movement and the Moroccan army but also resulted in the mass displacement of the Saharawi civilian population, who became refugees in the desert region around Tindouf, in SW Algeria.
Today, a third generation of Saharawi refugee children are growing up with few prospects of a better life. According to the latest UNHCR 2018 report, over 170,000 Saharawis live in 5 large refugee camps, 80% being women and children. Aid dependent for their survival needs, they endure harsh living and weather conditions and a lack of opportunities to develop and be heard.
LATEST NEWS:
It's official.
The Sahara Marathon is back!
February 25 to March 3rd, 2022
Join the race for the Saharawi people in the refugee camps to show your solidarity and help break the isolation they have endured during the pandemic. Have a life-affirming experience in support of the children in the camps!
Race day: February 28, 2022
Chartered flights will leave from Madrid on February 25 and fly back from Tindouf to Madrid on March 3rd.
Participants will fly out on a group visa, so all you need to do is to sign up and get training!
Deadline for registration in Feb 10
Sign up now!
"SANDTRACKS"
A film by Carolina Graterol is now available to view online!
22minutes, 2022
We are thrilled to inform you that documentary filmmaking Carolina, who is also an activist and journalist from Venezuela, has made available for public viewing her MA film project about the life of Sandblast founder. We think she did a fantastic job of highlighting the plight and culture of the Saharawi people through Danielle's activism.
Description:
Danielle’s story is intimate and epic, as she introduces her life’s mission to bringing the unknown struggle of the Saharawi people for self-determination to worldwide attention, interwoven with pivotal moments that have changed the course of her life in dramatic ways.
She found her home amongst the S
Click here to view the trailer.
Click here to view the entire film.
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