Benefit Concert & Launch for Western Sahara

Sandblast warmly invites you to 

this very special fundraiser 

at London Aquarium. 

This multimedia benefit will feature live music, screenings of short films, interactive seminars, art installations, photography exhibitions and a raffle.  

Caravanserai Production and Acting Studio, Sandbast and YLSR (Youth Leadership and Social Responsibility) launch Sahara Arts Oasis and raise funds for the Saharawi Actor and Director Programme. 

Sandblast will also promote its Studio-Live project and Running the Sahara 2011 campaign. 

Find out more >>>

 

Source: http://www.sandblast-arts.org/get-involved/go-to-events

Press release: UK charity Sandblast aims for high participation in international sporting event "Running the Sahara 2010"

The London-based human rights charity Sandblast calls for high UK participation in international sporting event in support of the Saharawi. “Running the Sahara 2010” is facilitated by Sandblast in an effort to raise funds and awareness for the Western Sahara dispute and its refugees. Aiming to recruit 100 participants before the registration deadline on October 15, Sandblast will host several events this September to inform the public and facilitate the registration process. Top rebel athlete and political refugee Salah Ameidane will join the events to share his experiences after having trained with Paula Radcliffe in May.

Sandblast works to give the Saharawis a voice through the arts and will be acting as the official UK facilitator for the Saharamarathon in 2010, with the support of the Polisario Front office in London, the diplomatic representation of the Saharawis in the UK. 

Organised by the Saharawi government-in-exile and international volunteers, “Running the Sahara” aims to raise awareness and money for projects to improve the lives of the long-term refugees. The sporting event takes place in the Saharawi refugee camps in the Algerian Sahara. Participants live with individual refugee families during their week stay in the camps.
Over 400 people from Europe and the US participated in “Running the Sahara 2009”. The UK contingent of 24 participants raised over £10,000 for the Saharawi Artist Fund to finance art workshops and training in the camps for cultural and economic empowerment. Among the British participants were 14 young professional actors from Caravanserai Acting Studios who led workshops in the camp and developed a British-Saharawi play, “The Other Side of the Wall” (premiering on July 23, 2009).

Press release: Top rebel athlete joins UK charity Sandblast at its "Running the Sahara 2010" launch on June 12th

The UK arts and human rights charity Sandblast is delighted to announce that Sahal Hmatou Amaidane will be a special guest at the launch of “Running the Sahara 2010”. Salah is a political refugee from Western Sahara in France. He has dedicated most of his sports career to running for the freedom of his people and homeland, occupied by Morocco since 1975. For his athletic and political aspirations, Salah has endured all kinds of physical and emotional hardships: most recently a brutal attack by two Moroccan men in the Pyrenees while he was training alongside Paula Radcliffe.  He will share his experiences at the launch evening.

26-year-old Sahal Hmatou grew up in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. His athletic life began at age 12 when he was recruited to Morocco’s junior running team. Early in his career he displayed an exceptional ability to run and win over a wide range of distances from 1500m to 10km. By 1999 he was the triple champion for Morocco for cross-country racing and the second champion of Africa (5000m). Despite his remarkable record, it did not protect Salah when he joined peaceful protests against the Moroccan occupation. His family home was repeatedly raided. He was blindfolded, taken to prison, interrogated, threatened and humiliated.

Sahal got political asylum in 2003 after he led an 8-km race in France and waved the Saharawi flag for the last remaining 200m. Alongside other exiled Saharawis, Salah has joined an UN-sponsored programme to reunite Saharawi families separated by the occupation and the 2,500km long land-mined Berm dividing the Western Sahara.

Not to be confused with the Marathon des Sables in Morocco-the launch will inform about the international solidarity race held in the Algerian desert, in February 2010, in aid of the Saharawi refugees and highlight the work of the Sandblast charity. The evening will also introduce the Saharawi struggle through the UK premiere of selected preview scenes from “The Other Side of the Wall”. This first British-Saharawi play is directed by, Giles Foreman. Also the founder of Caravanserai Acting Studios, his organization works in close partnership with Sandblast and is hosting the event.

LAUNCH FEATURE #1: British-Saharawi drama

Henry Blake, actor and member of Caravanserai Productions and Acting Studio in London, performs with aspiring Saharawi actor, Zrug Lula, in THE WALL-presented as a work in progress at the 2007 Sandblast Festival. This historic British Saharawi theatre collaboration, will be premiered in full on July 23rd, 2009 in London. A few preview scenes will be presented on JUNE 12 at the Sandblast cultural launch of Running the Sahara 2010.

Now renamed THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL, the play tells the story of the Saharawi struggle through the extraordinary life story of ElKeihal, a Saharawi poet, separated from his mother as a young boy at the height of the war, in Western Sahara, who does not reunite with her until 21 years later.

Check DON'T MISS THIS closer to the date for details.