The Jungle Book on the stage
6.300 children and students of the Metropolitan Region in Chile assisted to a presentation of the play “The Jungle Book”, put on the stage based on “The Jungle Book” of Rudyard Kipling.
Between September 1st and 9th there were 14 theatre presentations on culture and recreation, in the line of support initiatives to students that the “Junta Nacional de Auxilio Escolar y Becas” (JUNAEB), organism that depends from the Ministry of Education of Chile, promotes. The project was developed by the World Scout Bureau-Interamerican Region, and its objective was to offer a space of culture and recreation to 6.300 children and youths of schools of high social vulnerability.
The children and youths participating were selected at schools and taken in comfortable buses from their towns to Parque Araucano, located in the eastern part of the city of Santiago. They assisted to the presentation of “The Jungle Book” thanks to a partnership between the World Scout Bureau-Iteramerican Region and the theatrical company of Vasco Moulian. The play was developed with the technique of black camera and characters that were puppets operated by actors, representing some scenes of Mowgli´s life in the jungle with his friends Baloo, Kaa and Bagheera.
Participants received at the end of the presentation a small book with some illustrated stories of the work of Kipling in a very nice format that contains some plays related with the characters of the jungle, a notebook for the personal engagements and spaces for comments of the play. The project also considered the possibility of giving to the accompanying teachers an educative guide to work with the children and youths themes like solidarity, comradeship, friendship, ability of listening, tolerance and respect.
This project, together with others realized during the first months of the year (school camps and events of urban recreation), confirm the work of the World Scout Bureau as a development agent of social initiatives to support the most vulnerable students in Chile. With these school camps it has been possible to facilitate the participation of more than 80.000 children and youths and mobilize more than 6.000 adults for its direction since 2006 when they started their activities as an institution collaborating with the JUNAEB.