KABUL - The Mobile Mini Circus for Children (MMCC) in Afghanistan presented colourful performances in Kabul yesterday to commemorate the 10th year of its successful mission in the country.

The artists, who were mostly Afghan children, performed various circus arts including juggling, acrobatics, theatre and songs that cheered up an audience of about 300 people, mainly children.

The MMCC, a traveling educational entertainment group, was established in 2002 with the aim to give the children the tools they need so they can develop by themselves creative and novel ways of spreading fun education throughout Afghanistan.

Since its inception, the MMCC artists have performed for 2.7 million people in 25 provinces of the country. It has also performed internationally in Denmark, Germany, Japan and Italy.

“We brought a cup for Afghanistan from the Peace Festival in Italy in 2010 and exchanged with our international audience the message of the message of love, affection, friendship and peace,” said Sher Khan Ahmedzai, the Artistic Director of MMCC.

MMCC has over 300 students in different provinces of Afghanistan including Nangarhar, Herat, Kabul, Bamyan and Ghor. In addition, workshops have been held in the schools to promote these activities among students.

The trainers at MMCC are mainly Afghans but their international colleagues often organize workshops to build their capacity on different skills.

“The circus in Afghanistan is a bit different from circuses around the world. We perform taking all the values of the Afghan society into consideration,” said Mr. Ahmedzai.

Despite a level of support from national and international organizations that work to support children in Afghanistan, the MMCC needs more boost to further develop their skills.

“The Government of Afghanistan should provide us the required resources and telecast our performances in television programmes so that we can introduce Afghanistan to the rest of world through circus,” said Nazif Sultani, a young performer.

The MMCC artists are pleased with their advancements during the past decade and hope to carry it on in the future.

“Our biggest achievement is giving happiness to the people; we give children energy through laughter and build their self-confidence so that they become great personalities of our country,” concluded Mr. Ahmedzai.

By UNAMA Kabul