A River Blue

In 2006 Barefoot Workshops launched A RIVER BLUE, an arts empowerment project for the children of internally-displaced persons camps in northern Uganda. Singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur was invited to help launch the project, where one hundred young people were brought together to participate in a music, dance, drama, and art festival. The festival was hugely successful which prompted Barefoot Workshops to continue supporting the community through A River Blue.

In January 2008, A River Blue Vocational Training Center was launched. It currently supports twenty youth through a hybrid curriculum that mixes tailoring, agroforestry, agriculture, animal husbandry, English, psychosocial counseling and business. Students rotate between classes, giving them a variety of skills that offers more opportunity and a chance to support themselves and contribute to building back their community.

An additional thirty-one youth are sponsored by A River Blue through a variety of outside programs including secondary school, catering/hotel management, and various other vocational training programs.

Visit The Website!

Learn more about A River Blue at www.ariverblue.org, where you can:

• Learn the story of A RIVER BLUE
• Learn about the field program and grasroots solutions
• View artwork created by the kids
• Listen to their music
• Watch the video
• View portraits of the kids
• Find out where to buy the song - A RIVER BLUE by Joseph Arthur
• Learn how you can help

Download the article that describes the original A River Blue arts festival. (PDF 1.6 MB)