7th Year WAIT UK Kick-Off Workshop
Livingstone House, Chislehurst

 On a crisp autumn Saturday, 24 WAIT members, including the trustees, met at Livingstone
House to commence the Kick-Off workshop of the 7th year of WAIT UK. The workshop
was shorter than the previous years, lasting from the 17th to the 18th September. The
workshop schedule included dance practices, various talks by the older members of WAIT,
and a film night. The dance practices were split into 3 groups, the newer female members
were taught the dance ‘Damaged’, which WAIT has performed in the last year, by Narumi
Le Bas and Theodore Kabeya, with the assistance of the choreographer himself, Jude
Greaves. There was a second girls group, who learned the classic WAIT dance, named
‘The Rose’, which was taught by Elizabeth Wiedicke and Miwa Shaw. The boys were
taught new break dancing skills by Vitas Le Bas, and Daniel Raineri, who helped at the
 workshop on the Saturday.

On Saturday the members participated in an interactive session lead by Farhad Nikayin,
in which the newer members were introduced to the fundamental rules of WAIT, and the
returning members were reminded of them. Many participants said they enjoyed this
approach to learning.

“The explanation of the rules was much more interactive [than before] and
it helped me to really understand them.”  - Narumi Le Bas, 16 years old

 

Elizabeth Wiedicke then gave a presentation aided by a power point she created to
educate the members on the more biological/scientific side of WAIT, concerning
HIV/AIDS. This was also interactive and included groups acting out a mini-sketch of
what they learnt. Other talks included testimonies by Tobias Dracup (WAIT UK alumnus),
Daniel Raineri and Vitas Le Bas; a talk aided by videos by Ashley Crosthwaite about
WAIT’s work in Uganda, and another interactive session lead by chairman Marshall
de Souza about the value of abstinence; in which each participant gained confidence
by talking in front of the team on why they wanted to remain abstinent.

 

Then workshop ended with a ‘Parent’s Session’, in which parents of the participants,
especially the new ones, could hear about what their children have been doing on the
workshop and included talks by Naomi Sato, our mother and cook of the workshop,
the chairman Marshall de Souza and Ashley Crosthwaite. The Sunday afternoon
ended with the final performances by the 3 groups, in which the parents could see
what their children had learnt during the weekend. All in all, there was a positive
response from both parents and participants, and 7 new girls joined WAIT UK this
year... we need to work on the boys’ side though.

Report by Elizabeth Wiedicke

A special thank you to:
Marshall de Souza                              Chairman & Speaker
Naomi Sato                                         Parent Coordinator & Cook
Ashley Crosthwaithe                          Education Coordinator & Speaker 
Fahrad Nikayin                                  WAIT Secretary & Speaker
Emily Ormondi                                  Cook
Vitas Le Bas & Elizabeth Wiedicke   MCs & Dance trainers & Speakers
Daniel Raineri                                    Speaker & Dance trainer 
Tobias Dracup                                   Speaker & WAIT Alumnus
Jonathan Earle                                   General Affairs  

Quotes by new members:

“Purity is the key to an incredible future”
– Mia Gardiner, 12 years

“My eyes are now open to the preciousness of purity”
– Cara Hays, 13 years old