PAINTING THE HEART OF HUMANITY

Beautiful Humanity is very much about beautiful hearts. Today we are featuring a wonderful new initiative from the Lalela Project called Heart Map.

 

The Lalela Project provides educational arts for youth affected by extreme poverty in order to spark creative thinking and awaken the entrepreneurial spirit.  

Heart Mapping is one of Lalela Project’s many ground-breaking curricula that connects students on a deeper level of emotional and creative intelligence.

Heart Mapping is all about listening with “heart.” Lalela is a Zulu word that means “to listen.” The Lalela Project developed this program to help students express the key emotions that define them as extraordinary humans.  

The Heart Mapping process begins when Lalela Project students interview and discover each other by “touring” each other’s heart.  They learn about each others’ cultural connections, common and different fears, challenges, talents, desires, and dreams.

It crosses cultural barriers, gender differences, and the earth’s borders.  

 

The Heart Map is modeled after the flow of the human heart’s four chambers, focusing on love, gratitude, inspiration, and dreams.  

 

By allowing children to openly express the contents of their own hearts in a safe environment, they can build communication and coping skills about their emotions and inner most thoughts.

 

Yolanda is the student who painted the heart map of Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a popular South African singer (aka "Princess of Africa"). She is 18 years old and lives in a township in the western cape, called Imizamo Yethu, otherwise known as Mandela Park. Yolanda's mother died of AIDS and she has been brought up by her granny in a household of 5 children, 3 which are her siblings.

 

She has a dream of becoming a singer. So it was especially moving for Yolanda to create a Heart Map of Yvonne Chaka Chaka, one of her heroes.

 

 

Wandisile is 17 years old. He too lives in Imizamo Yethu. He has no father and lives with his mother and 2 siblings in a 1 room shack. His mother is a domestic worker. He is passionate about music and dreams of being a DJ. He created this beautiful Heart Map of his hero, Justin Bieber.

To learn more, please visit Lalela Project. And check them out on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

And check out our Daily Fix post tomorrow for more stories about the beautiful work of the Lalela Project.

Read more about Beautiful Humanity, it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Beautiful Humanity in Books & Film, New Ideas About Humanity’s Origins, 10 Foods From Humanity’s Dawn, Humanity: New Portraits & Homes, and On the Road to Beautiful Humanity.

Enter this week’s BN Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Humanity. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 03.09.14.

PHOTO CREDITS

 

1. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Veronica Wilson Heart Map of Yvonne Chaka Chaka

2. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Tracy McGregor Heart Map.

3. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Nik Rabinowitz Heart Map.

4. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Shaun Tomson Heart Map.

5. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Pnina Fenster Heart Map.

6. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Yvonne Chaka Chaka Heart Map

7. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Heart Map of Justin Bieber.

8. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Derek Watt Heart Map.

9. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Colin Cowie Heart Map.

10. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Mark Boucher Heart Map.

11. Courtesy of the Lalela Project. Peter Clarke Heart Map.

12. Courtesy of the Lalela project. Spirit of the Great Heart.