“Puppets on the Road” is a project taking place in two governorates (Médenine, Tataouine – Remada), whose aim is to foster social and cultural diversity, civic participation and the socio-cultural inclusion of children. It targets 60 children aged between 9 and 15. The planned activities are days of recording popular and mythical stories, training in puppet-making and in theatrical-script writing, ending with a puppet-theatre festival.
A folk tale! An oral heritage! During November, around twenty folk stories were collected and recorded across different regions (Béni Khedache, Médenine, Remada) with our popular storytellers, the “hakawati”. From one story to the next, it was a discovery of a popular tradition, a custom and a tale; and the moral drawn from each tale always carries a universal human dimension – honesty, faithfulness, tolerance, unity…
Read them fairy tales! Albert Einstein was once asked how we could make our children more intelligent. His answer was both simple and wise: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” It is not only intelligence that is sought, but also the move to action through the puppet-making training.
