Dancing for Kids
A non-profit organization, using dance to bring happiness to the children of the world.

A non-profit organization that focuses on the children of the world. We believe that the future starts with the children, and not just the children in the city and country that we live in, but all over the world. Artists have been the world politicians in bringing people together through their art. Poets, painters, singers, crafters, dancer, and musicians have united all people, different people in this world through their art. As dancers, and expressive beings we want to use our art to create smiles, and give hope to our children,
 
It has been my dream, and conquest through my years of dancing to help those around me, and give them a glimpse of happiness. I find such peace when surrounded by children, their faces of innocence, and pureness makes me wonder when I turn on the news and see what the world has become how these children keep their innocence and honesty so close to their hearts. The children that we want to help are those who have been tainted by a particular circumstance or situation, there are millions of children around the world who don’t have a piece of bread to eat, and their imagination and art is the only reason to live. Their mothers have abandoned them, or they are to poor to feed them, sometimes they are being forced to work and with that losing their childhood. Some are too sick to play, and others have been abused, and too sad to imagine. This is what dancing for Kids is all about, we can’t change their past, but we can make a difference in their future.
 
There are so many people that need help, and the reason I chose children to help is because of their vulnerability and innocence. Their need of guidance, and love. We want to take our dance one step further, and forget the competition, the glamour, the stage and for one night out of the year, dance for a selfless purpose, and a good cause.
 
We are a dance community in Miami, Florida who will prepare throughout the year for an annual event, a magnificent dance extravaganza that will raise funds for the children around the world. Each year our organization will produce a dance event with the purpose of raising money for children in a specific country. We will travel to this country with food, clothes and toys, we will film our entire stay as a documentary, a different type of dance documentary that we can then bring back and show to the public, sponsors, and our community of what we accomplished as a whole. Giving back a little happiness to those children. Our goal is to use the art of bellydance among other dances to promote and create awareness in our society, and with this, help the children that have been forgotten.
 
Help us promote our cause!  
Help us create awareness!
 
If you are a dancer and would like to volunteer, please email us!
 
In addition, Dancing for Kids will host charity events throughout the year to continue the raising of funds for this cause.
 
Our next event will be in 2009
 

Dancing for the Kids in COLOMBIA
A little bit of the poor Children in COLOMBIA
 
When we think of children, we think of toys, laugher, birthday parties, and of course their too honest comments from time to time, however we don’t think of children fighting, and I am not talking about fighting with toy guns at a party, I am talking about real fighting, killing people, what we call “child combats”. Well let me start by stating that approximately 80 percent of child combatants in Colombia belong to one of the two left-wing guerrilla groups, the FARC or ELN. The remainder fights in paramilitary ranks.  
 
Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 11,000 children fight in Colombia’s armed conflict, one of the highest totals in the world. At least one of every four irregular combatants in Colombia is under 18 years of age. Several thousand of them are under the age of 15, the minimum age permitted for recruitment into armed forces or groups under the Geneva Conventions.
 
 
The FARC continues to recruit and use children, and have made no commitment to stop this practice. By Human Rights Watch’s estimate, the FARC has the majority of child combatants in Colombia. A conservative estimate is that 20 to 30 percent of all FARC combatants are under 18 years old, a bit sad isn’t it?
 
You see, this is just the number of children that are fighting for a reason they are too young to even know, or even understand, as their lack of education is not even elementary, some are just happy they are being fed and clothed, and not roaming the streets begging for food. They are surviving in a country that as beautiful as it is, has been tainted by bloody civil wars. I am Colombian, and my father was a Human Rights Activist for a very long time, he also was a politician until he was murdered, and we wont go into this right now, but situations like these are very personal to me.  As a dancer and president of this cause Dancing for Kids, I am going to then tell you how the other side of the poor children live in this country.
 
The streets of Bogotá, Medellin, and Cali among other mayor cities are filled with beggars at night, small children waiting at the airport begging for money, asking for food. The streets are filled with these kids, beautiful children wanting a piece of bread to take home, as their home consists of cardboard houses, and dirt floors. Tell me what you would do if you were hungry? If you haven’t had a descent meal in weeks? It is why these kids become thieves, and fall under the reign of drug dealers and some girls become prostitutes, it’s their way to survive, and live. Others turn to drugs, and some don’t even make it to their 15th year.
 
What happens to education? Children in high-risk areas face physical danger and difficulties traveling to schools in mined areas. Sometimes, schools are taken over by armed groups during combat, and children risk forced recruitment outside schools. Teachers are common targets of irregular armed groups, making it extremely difficult to recruit in some rural areas and affecting the quality of education. Schools in conflict-affected zones are often not getting the special attention they need from the authorities and lack basic resources. Many children must work, if lucky enough to get a low paying job, if not they walk the streets and beg for money.
 
To sum everything up, education is really at the bottom of their priorities, for the government and themselves, and these children are left to the mercy of a miracle. It is why we need to come together and help make a diffirence, not just for them but for a better future. 
 
Want to help this cause? Please email us with comments, suggestions at info@moondanceandspa.com
 
“The United Nations has recognized that both guerrillas and paramilitaries violate fundamental humanitarian standards by relying on children to fight. These horrific practices are causing immeasurable damage to Colombia’s children, and to Colombian society as a whole. “José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch
 

By Adriana Echeverri