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‘Artisans of Peace overcoming Poverty’

06 October 2015
17:00 - 00:00

–    A conversation with the author, Diana Skelton

District Six Museum is pleased to be hosting a conversation with Diana Skelton, International Director of the Fourth World Movement which has its origins in France.

The movement was started in a camp for homeless families outside of Paris in 1956. A Catholic priest,  Father Joseph Wresinki  became chaplain to the 250 families living there.

Determined to fight the poverty which he experienced through these families, he started a community development  project with them.

From the outset, the Fourth World Movement has targeted three priorities:

–    Learning from the most disadvantaged families;
–    Understanding how they became trapped in persistent poverty; and
–    Planning and developing projects with them.

The movement strives to honor the dignity of these families and their refusal to submit to poverty. Included in this is the commitment to record all traces of struggles and hopes of poor people. It seeks to work with the recovery of memory of marginalised people across the world, and to reflect the stories of whole neighbourhoods which were destroyed to make way for ‘improved conditions of life’. The synergy with the work of District Six Museum is immediately apparent, and the two organisations have found several points of intersection both in content and methods of working. 

Diana Skelton is one of the authors of ‘Artisans of Peace overcoming Poverty’. She will be joined in conversation by Martin Kalisa, one of Fourth World’s regional directors for Africa. Originally from Rwanda, he is now based in Senegal.

You are invited to join in this conversation on:

Date: Tuesday 6 October

Time: 18h30 for 19h00

Venue: District Six Museum Homecoming Centre
15 Buitenkant Street

Enquiries: 021 4667200 / reception@districtsix.co.za

This event is open to the public.
Light refreshments will be available.