Re-capturing Childhood in Tijuana, Mexico

SOS Social Circus creates safe and playful space for migrant children sheltered in Tijuana, Mexico

Claudia* left Guatemala with her eight-year-old daughter Ana Lucía* to try to keep them both safe. They departed their country four months ago, traveling north, with the intention of seeking asylum in the United States. In the months prior to their departure, her family faced regular threats of violence from local gangs. Claudia decided to leave the country after a gang threatened to kidnap her daughter.

Claudia recalls that when they first arrived at a shelter in Tijuana, near the border between Mexico and the United States, her daughter did not want to leave their tent. There were other children at the shelter who had fled their homes in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and other parts of Mexico, but Ana Lucía did not try to play with them.

Like Ana Lucía, most of these migrant children had spend months on the road, sleeping in parks and walking most of the day, lacking appropriate food, water, sanitation, and healthcare. On the road and in Tijuana, they faced increasing levels of xenophobia and hate crimes.

However, many things changed for Ana Lucía and the other children at the shelter when specially-trained circus artists arrived. The artists were there to run an SOS Social Circus workshop, a transformative program implemented in cooperation between SOS Children’s Villages and Cirque du Soleil. The program creates a safe and creative space for children and youth who have experienced traumatic events.

Twice a week, migrant children and youth gathered for an SOS Social Circus Workshop where they were challenged to play cooperative games and learn circus skills. Through circus activities, they built trust, gained self confidence, and re-captured the experience of being a child.

To Claudia’s relief, her daughter found her smile. She says: “I see my daughter very happy when she finishes each session, she comes and tells me everything she learned. The workshop has helped her a lot to work on her emotions and to feel like a child because she laughs and plays.”

SOS social workers who accompanied the children in the workshops observed that many children presented psychomotor delay, behavioural issues and cognitive difficulties. Maricruz, a social worker with SOS Children’s Villages, says this was the case for a young boy named Elias, who tried a game of jump rope for the first time when he arrived at the first workshop. The boy had never played with, or owned, a toy or a game.

“He picked the jump rope and, after encouragements from an instructor, gave it a try. Despite the difficulty, he was not discouraged and kept trying until he managed to jump the rope,” says Maricruz. “I will never forget the smile on his face when he succeeded."

As the children experienced the joy of play and gained confidence in their skills, they also built bonds of friendship. Initially, the group saw a number of differences amongst each other, as they came from different countries and cultures, and children of different ages, boys and girls were all represented.

But as they played together, the children and youth became curious about each other and were encouraged to talk about each other’s cultures and families, as well as how they had experienced xenophobia and marginalisation. The children became more comfortable holding hands, leaning against each other’s shoulders, or bracing each other for activities. Older youth came to act like big brothers and sisters to younger children who had more difficulties with some of the circus techniques.

For Claudia, it was a joy to see children acting like children again. She says: “I see that the children have fun. They challenge themselves when trying to do the exercises; they forget everything they have lived since they left their homes.”

SOS Social Circus is a program implemented in cooperation between Cirque du Soleil and SOS Children’s Villages. The program was first piloted Mexico in 2013. Since then, more than 700 children and youth have directly benefited in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and South Africa.

SOS Children’s Villages is working in Tijuana to provide temporary shelter to unaccompanied migrant children, to help unaccompanied children to re-unite with their biological families, to provide psycho-social support to migrant children, and temporary shelter for single parents and their children.

*Names changed to protect their privacy

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