Inspiring the next generation of leaders
We are a global charity, using participatory theatre as a tool to empower women and children, primarily from migrant, refugee and displaced backgrounds, to overcome the challenges and opportunities of migration, and to step into leadership in their communities
Scheherazade Initiatives was founded by Caroline Watson in 2011. Born and brought up in Hong Kong of British parents, Caroline set up and ran China’s first and only social enterprise, Hua Dan, in 2004, empowering migrant workers to run theatre workshops in their communities. These individuals were low-skilled workers employed in factories, construction sites and in the service industries, at the intersection of globalization and China’s rise to power, yet rarely receiving an equitable share in the wealth generated globally through these supply chains. Her work in China with Hua Dan over seven years enabled her to develop a model for training underserved populations to use the power of participation in theatre as a tool for personal and social transformation, working with over 32,000 women and children across the country. Caroline has been recognised as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2011, amongst other accolades. You can learn more about Hua Dan’s achievements here.
In recent years, we have begun developing our model into a global one that encompasses migrant and refugee populations across the world and we have recently documented our tools and processes into an online learning program that will enable us to rapidly scale up our work through the use of technology and micro-learning. The Covid pandemic also gave us an opportunity to take our workshops online, enabling us to reach previously inaccessible populations and to explore with our participants what it means to stay resilient in this time of huge uncertainty.
This enabled us to expand our work to not only reach women and children in China but also participants in countries as far apart as Syria, the US, Europe, Afghanistan, Iran, India, all of them dealing with their own experiences of uncertainty in the face of the pandemic and the attendant economic crises in their respective countries.
Migrant and refugee populations are at particular risk of social isolation, health challenges and domestic violence. Our unique and innovative model of using theatre-based training to empower the leadership skills of migrant and refugee women is proving particularly effective in helping women develop a sense of community, and develop the inner resources and resilience to navigate the crisis – and turn them into the resilient, entrepreneurial leaders that their communities will need to rebuild.
We are finding that the women gain self-confidence in being able to express themselves with other women in a safe, intimate setting; discover how liberating it can be to move their bodies and find their voice with the dance and vocal exercises we share; develop a shared language around their experience and helps them to set goals for what they want to achieve when they emerge from lockdown. This mirrors the kind of results that we have observed for many years in our physical workshops.
Stories of Impact
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Dong Fen
Meet Dong Fen, a young migrant woman from Yunnan province, who was the first Hua Dan participant. Dong Fen first came to Beijing in the early 2000s and worked closely with our founder, Caroline, to establish our model of training women to deliver programmes in their communities. Dong Fen excels in operations and executions and, together with Caroline, has impacted the lives of over 32,000 women and children across China through establishing Hua Dan in China. A wonderful example of a grassroots leader whose life has not only been impacted hugely by her own transformation through participation in theatre, but who has helped to develop the business model and social impact of Hua Dan’s work and helped seed our unique ‘theatre for social change’ franchise model.
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She now has more than thirteen years of experience in Theatre in Education and Improvisational Theatre. She has directed performances of different topics and forms; in 2014 and 2016 she participated in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and brought two works about Chinese women to the festival: Hand Made in China and Chinese Women’s Whispers. Both of the performances received great welcome and reviews of four and five stars. She has led more then 10,000 workshops, mainly with a focus on children’s empowerment. In her workshops, children’s potential can be activated in its natural way.
Currently, she is General Manager of Hua Dan, council member of Beijing Improv Group (BIG), and a councillor of the New Citizen Club.
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Zahra
Meet Zahra who joined our ‘Women’s Empowerment Train-The Trainer’ programme in 2023. Each woman on this programme learns to conduct workshops that impact women and children in their community and create employment opportunities for them.
After the Taliban took over the government of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops, the life of women in Afghanistan plunged into an extremely dark period. Prevented from having a job, accessing higher education, or being a part of the fabric of Afghan society, mental health and suicide rates have soared and there are few opportunities for women to exercise any personal agency or to build the valuable lifelines of community that give them a sense of purpose and meaning. Thankfully, with Scheherazade’s model of using technology to train women in the skills of leadership and the creative arts, we are able to give women like Zahra the chance to build their life anew, in programmes that they can implement in their communities in-person or, if circumstances dictate, from the comfort of their own homes through technology such as Zoom.
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Now, Zahra has a dream to use the money from our donors to set up a small cafe where women can safely come together and learn, share, laugh and rebuild their lives in the privacy of a woman-only space that creates more avenues for women to take part in Scheherazade-style projects, and give Zahra the leadership in her community and her own sense of agency.
Zahra says ‘Women need such places so that they can be happy for an hour and be away from the limits. I want them to have the best place with the best facilities. We create value for our people and our customers, they create value for us by coming to our cafe and we return this value to them.’
Please note the name and photo used in this story have been changed to protect the identity of our participant.
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Lili
Meet Lili who is based in Beijing and who has also been part of Scheherazade’s programme. Her desire was to help parents and children, teachers and people with disabilities from schools and kindergartens in her area to work together to better understand each other’s needs. Lili’s workshops provide an outlet for self-expression and creativity, which in turn strengthens the relationships between the children, the parents and the teachers. Lili also held summer camps for the children in her community. The children were willing to participate and they learned skills to solve problems, whilst the parents have started to pay more attention to themselves and are much happier as they see their relationships with their children getting stronger.
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Lili was very nervous as she embarked upon this project, but she has flourished as her project has evolved.
Lili says ‘This project really gave me the impetus to start my own business for a second time. Before this project started, I rented a house in my community and wanted to do something to promote people's physical and mental health, so I chose the name "Happy Planet", but I still could not find any way to make it work. Finally, I failed, and when I was not sure what to do next, I learned about this project, which made me feel very excited, because I began to study very seriously, and actively contacted the mothers and the kindergarten in my community, and I shared my learning experience with everyone. I then got agreement from the kindergarten to carry out workshops with the mothers and the children, and I have since mobilized other people to carry out more workshops. I made flyers and publicized them in the community. I know that only through such training can I truly grow myself and my team and be more effective in the face of difficulties on the road of entrepreneurship. I really want to make this project, the cause I will fight for in the rest of my life. Thank you so much 🙏.’
Examples of Workshop Activities
Why Scheherazade?
Let Caroline Watson weave you a story...
