Animation domination on our Creative Expression Saturdays programme

On an Afrocats session, it’s impossible not to be inspired by our young people’s creativity – and our recent Saturday session supported by Children in Need was no exception.

For session 3 of crafting an animation that will form part of an exclusive summer performance for Refugee Week, everyone got stuck in making colourful characters from split pin puppets alongside arts practitioners Loren and Sinead.

And everybody really made their characters their own using tons of cut-out props on some fun and unique backgrounds.

Even mum Sonia was happy to joined in - take a look below to see how they got on.

The creative arts are essential for young minds, and making things like an animation can stimulate different parts of the brain, including visual and auditory processing according to CompuChild.

Such activities can also help them understand complex concepts while developing visual thinking, and make complicated ideas more accessible - and importantly, learning how to collaborate as a team towards a shared creative vision.

Of her time with Afrocats so far, participant Batul (7) reflected:

‘I enjoy Afrocats because we get to do fun stuff like this… I came here [from Azerbaijan] with zero English, but I improve all the time here.’

We’re glad to hear you’re having a great time, Batul, and see you next time when we’ll take even bigger steps to make the animation truly come to life!

Support activities for young global majority people like Batul by donating here – and make a difference for sanctuary seekers across Manchester.