Associazione Clatù, Catania (Sicily)
How it began
Gesine Lent, an animator from Circus Balloni, met Maria Elena from the Associazione Clatù at the international meetings of circus educators. We were able to see first-hand how committed Maria Elena is to running this project and what financial worries they have time and again.
The project
Clatù is an association that promotes circus, visual arts and culture as tools for social development. The association is based in Catania (Sicily) and organizes the social circus. Projects, circus and clown workshops, dance laboratories, street shows and other activities aimed at spreading culture and education. The association was founded in 2017 and has been working in San Cristoforo, Catania ever since. He constantly organizes social circus courses.
The circus course starts in October and ends in May. We have 2 lessons of 2 hours each per week, one for children aged 6-9 and the other for children aged 10-14. The group of participants consists of children who live in San Cristoforo and come from countries such as Morocco, Sri Lanka, Romania and Bulgaria.
Some of the children live in extreme poverty, have a lack of educational opportunities and/or live in very problematic families (parents in prison, drug dealing, prostitution, violent environment).
Support from Plume
2019 financial support after intensive mail correspondence
2020 Unfortunately, the planned visit in March had to be canceled due to Corona. We are still in contact.
2022 Simona and Dagmar combine a trip to Sicily with a visit to Maria. We brought circus equipment with us and toured the hall and the Prospettiva premises. Unfortunately, the expansion of the training hall comes to a standstill as the landlord gives them notice.
Links
New community circus project PROSPETTIVA
(4-page PDF in English, as of February 2022)
Click here for the detailed documentation about the activities of
Clatù (16-page PDF in English)
