In preparation for the MRE Circus workshop, a team from the Awassa Children's Project and Circus Debub Nigat held auditions at Sherkole primary school. From over 400 children and youth who showed up, 28 children and youths from various tribal backgrounds were selected on the merit of their gymnastic and theatre skills. The six-week workshop included gymnastics, theatre, playwriting, and mine risk education training. They also learnt about leadership, work ethics, teamwork and creativity needed to create and sustain a circus group in Sherkole.

The resulting show followed a group of refugees on their way home and showed their encounters with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) en route. The hour-long performance offered basic mine awareness tips that, from the perspective of the organisers, could make the difference between life and death for returning refugees. These included ways to recognise warning signs indicating the presence of landmines/UXO, steps to take if one encounters a landmine/UXO, and how to avoid landmines, such as not travelling at night, staying on the main roads, and not letting children play with foreign objects.

The circus was intended to be both entertaining and educational and the programme organisers hoped that people would have fun and learn something in the process. After every show, the audience was asked to reflect on the lessons learnt.

Conflict, Youth.

With the formation of a government of national unity which has ended over two decades of deadly civil war, Sudanese refugees living in Ethiopia are returning to Southern Sudan. As mines remained a major deterrent and danger, mine risk education activities were considered necessary for people living in refugee camps who were wanting to return.

Sherkole camp, which opened in 1997, is one of five camps in western Ethiopia that together host nearly 80,000 refugees. The overwhelming majority of refugees in Sherkole camp hail from the Upper Nile and Blue Nile regions, two of the most heavily-mined areas in South Sudan. According to Fernando Protti-Alvarado, the Deputy Representative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)'s Regional Liaison Office for Africa, there is limited area-specific information for returning refugees, and only estimates exist on the number of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattered in the region.

According to the organisers, prior to the recent workshop, the refugees' knowledge of landmines and UXO had been based primarily on folklore and anecdotes.

"During the conflict, they dropped bombs filled with objects that resembled kitchen utensils and those who attempted to use them in the kitchen were injured or killed by an explosion," says George, a community leader. He explains that in rural South Sudan where resources are scarce, small metal objects such as UXO can serve a purpose in the kitchen. Such stories represent a large extent of the education about lakam (Arabic for landmine/UXO) in the camp".

Though the refugees seem to be aware of the presence of lakam in Sudan, they do not know any details or preventive methods. The MRE Circus workshop seeks to build upon the existing knowledge of lakam as well as the success of a circus education campaign on HIV/AIDS in Sherkole camp performed earlier that year.


The shows and its workshops were run by Circus Debub Nigat, which has been performing and educating rural and urban communities throughout Ethiopia since 2003. Its performances focus on HIV/AIDS awareness education, as well as issues such as female genital mutilation, alcohol and drug abuse, refugee repatriation, and mine risk education.