INDIA AYLES

By Standing Voice

July 25^th, 2018

"The workshops make people feel human. Standing Voice does that better than any charity I’ve ever worked with."

India Ayles joined communications agency Zetteler in November 2017. Founded by one of our trustees, Sabine Zetteler, the organisation sent four of its team, including India, to join Standing Voice in Tanzania for a series of special renovations this summer. With artist Camille Walala and creative director Julia Jomaa at the helm, India and the team painted bespoke murals on the walls and water tanks of the Umoja Training Centre, imbuing the building with new energy and colour in time for the Summer Skills Workshop: an integrated training event providing skills development opportunities for the Ukerewe community.

Back in London, India sat down with us to reflect on what the experience meant for her, and for the people of Ukerewe.

Blurry-eyed from 24 hours of travelling, the team and I landed late in the evening in Mwanza, Tanzania’s second city and the home of Standing Voice. With a decent night’s sleep behind us, we awoke the next day overexcited and ready to hit the ground running. After collecting materials we knew we might need—paint, timber, stationery, you name it—we boarded the ferry to Ukerewe Island in the heart of Lake Victoria. The ferry felt like Noah’s Ark; the sheer quantity of belongings could have lasted the passengers a lifetime! People had brightly coloured fruit baskets, suitcases of all shapes and sizes, sofas, and crates of miscellaneous items I couldn’t even begin to name. Climbing onto the roof of the ferry, we saw Lake Victoria expand before us, a seemingly limitless body of water.

Arriving on the island and heading to the Umoja Training Centre was surreal. The patterns on the dresses of local women reminded me of Camille’s designs – bold and eye-catching. The centre itself was like a giant tree house, with a large sloping roof designed to give people with albinism refuge from the sun. Its tiles had been made from soil, dipped in water, compressed and left to dry in the heat of the sun. I loved the idea that the centre was built with the ground from which it was born, and made by local hands.

Painting started straight away the next day. Camille and Julia had been tasked with painting the centre’s water tanks, and transforming its library and radio suite with her trademark use of colour and pattern. The pair mapped out the first water tank and remarkably had finished it by lunch. The blue, red and green circumference of the tank added a transformative accent of colour to the centre, foreshadowing the designs that would come later in the week. Under the close direction of Camille and Julia, the rest of us painted the external façades: bold blue windowsills and light pink walls, punctuated with monochromatic circles. The circles reflected the centre’s philosophy: that people with and without albinism belong alongside one another, united.

The second water tank, tall and cylindrical, resembled some of the local textiles with its angular blocks of colour. This was my favourite Walala design: everyone helped to apply it, from beneficiaries of the programme to members of the Standing Voice and Zetteler teams. Simon Sawyer and Alex Booker had begun constructing the library and the painting was in full swing, with pops of colour and new installations emerging all over the centre.

A few days later, more than 70 guests arrived for the Summer Skills Workshop 2018. What I loved was the community atmosphere: people with albinism, their friends, families and peers, all coming together in a shared aspiration to learn. I remember feeling so welcomed into the fold, when one woman would periodically pass her baby to me while taking part in her workshop, completely at ease with me, a stranger, minding her child.

My favourite moment of the trip came on an excursion with the photography group, when we spontaneously attended a local wedding. Welcomed into the celebration and invited to dance, the group set about photographing the event as fresh material for their portfolios. This was especially valuable, allowing the photography participants to see how their skills might manifest vocationally, such as being an events photographer for the local community.

Volunteering at the workshops has made my workplace connection with Standing Voice much more visceral. I’m not saying I know everything, but having seen the work first-hand I can picture it and feel it more. I’m much more emotionally involved when talking to press contacts about the experience; instead of citing statistics, I can draw from my own memories and experiences to speak from the heart.

Standing Voice continues to fight the stigma around albinism with creativity and courage. The Summer Skills Workshop was an incredibly special experience, best summed up by Paschal Merumba, the gardener of the Umoja Training Centre: “We eat together, we laugh together, we do everything together without discrimination. They love us and we love them so this is a very special event, a very special moment.”