Monthly Archives: June 2025

A workshop by Miriam Alonso & Cristina Gusano.

“During the week of April 14, we taught a craft workshop to 2 classes of the Tionk Essil school where each day was dedicated to an activity that we did with the first class and replicated with the second class, after recess.

The children became familiar with the different tools and accessories we used to compose our crafts. They really enjoyed learning the different techniques.

Dedicating a space to games and creativity is always a good bet, especially with pre-teen children whose main interests are having fun, interacting with their peers and gradually defining their personality through creations.”

In April, a group of artists travelled to Thionck Essyl with Javi Royo to give a series of artistic workshops at CEM Kamanar.

One of them was the workshop ‘Illustrated cooking recipes’ given by Florence Cairo, visual artist.

The aim of the workshop was to provide the participants with the visual elements necessary to understand, through simple drawings, illustrations and pictograms, the basics of reproducing, transmitting and copying Senegalese family cooking recipes.

The group consisted of 16 students, all women of legal age who are members of the Thionck Essyl Women’s Association. They are all mothers, and the

majority of them also assume the main responsibility for the household.

Some have jobs in the community – in the community garden, salt pans, cleaning, market stalls or cooking for the camps – while others work with their husbands in various enterprises, or plan to start a small “restaurant”, which is actually a soup kitchen.

“I believe that this workshop has been a human experience that far exceeded artistic expectations, and became an intimate, complicit and happy moment that illuminated the way for all of us”. Flor

Photos by Jordi García