Last week, Ocean View residents hosted a unique open-air cinema for the children in their community to create a safe space.
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Jodie Adonis told Daily Voice that the first outdoor bioscope was held last week in the spur of the moment when a neighbour, Vasco Vigis, was checking to see if a projector was working.
Once the projector was plugged in and playing a movie, a group of curious children gathered on the pavement to watch. This prompted neighbours to work together to provide popcorn and chips while they planned a second movie night.
‘We were able to make boerewors for the kids and get chips and cooldrink for them as well,’ Adonis said.
Around 35 kids, accompanied by their parents, joined to watch Kung Fu Panda 4. The movie was projected onto the side of a building at Centaur Close in Ocean View.
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Adonis says a third show is also being planned. ‘We are trying to create a safe space for kids where they can just have fun. The adults in the streets look forward to creating more moments like these for the kids because they really enjoy it.’
Whaseem Williams, a resident of the area, says the neighbours from Columbia Way and Centaur Close made sausage rolls and provided cool drinks and snacks for the kids for the Saturday screening.
‘The shooting in Ocean View has stopped and it gives us hope to do stuff like this for the children. At least we’re keeping them busy.’
The Vigis Home of Hope, a non-profit aimed at serving the community, works regularly with children through fun activities. ‘It’s not a common thing for us as a community to sit outside and project a movie against a wall, as gang violence and substance abuse in our community has made some (…) live behind closed doors but the doors in Ocean View [have] been opening one by one,’ says founding director, Pastor Dimetre Vigis.
‘Open-air cinema is a space where we are hoping that it will create a family environment and that children all over Ocean View will see that there are individuals that love and care for them.’
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Picture: Alex Litvin / Unsplash