Anukal Dhara

Anukul Dhara

(Rajkumari Coco Sundori)

Anukul Dhara, Coco Ballucci, also known as Rajkumari Coco is a Chandigarh based makeup artist who was born and brought up in Kolkata. She is a freelance makeup artist and have been seen working closely with famous Pollywood celebrities like Neeru Bajwa, Sonam Bajwa, Sara Gurpals and many more. She consider herself to be “Princess of Kolkata”.

Anukul Dhara is a brave and talented artist from Kolkata. She breaks gender stereotypes with the power of makeup. She’s a celebrity makeup artist and a beauty influencer too. Even though she hails from Kolkata, her name is renowned in the Pollywood industry.

She is an art model and also working as a textile designer under Sabyasachi to quitting a salon job and becoming a freelance makeup artist, she’s had it all. One can often spot him with the leading ladies of Pollywood such as Sonam Bajwa, Mandy Takhar, Wamiqa Gabbi and Sara Gurpal or Punjabi singers like Sunanda Sharma, Jasmine Sandlas and Barbie Maan. She is the first choice of Punjabi actresses. For her work purpose, she has to work in Punjab, far away from her hometown, Kolkata.

Anukul Dhara shares her secrets and tips and why she loves working in Punjab, away from his hometown Kolkata. She is a self taught makeup artist and is inspiring all with her hard work. She is for sure a very talented makeup artist and no one does the subtle yet gorg look better than her. She is an amazing person who has such an outstanding level of confidence.

“There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.” Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

# Dada #Surrealism #Fluxus #Asemic #Noir #Beat #Satire #Baudelaire #Tagore #Ray #Abusurdist and more

“One should always be drunk. That's all that matters...But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.” Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen

Students Cambodia

Writing Through

Writing Through is a charitable organisation which uses creative writing as a tool to develop thinking skills, language fluency and self-esteem in marginalised and at risk populations throughout the world.

Writing Through is a not-forprofit organisation registered as a US charity dedicated to promoting the education of some of the world’s most at-risk children and adults. Via our workshops, taught jointly in both English and the school’s native language, students are helped to think conceptually and then critically, to write more fluently and creatively in English, and to increase their sense of selfesteem and self-worth. We believe that arts education allows both children and adults to view their difficult world more hopefully. In this way, they can imagine and then work towards their own better futures.

How It Started

Sue Guiney’s first time in Cambodia was an eye-opening and inspiring experience. Like so many others, she was captivated by the kindness of the Khmer people, the beauty of the landscape and the wonder of the ancient temples. This inspiration prompted her to write a novel set in Cambodia, ‘Clash of Innocents’.

She decided to give back to this country that acted as her muse by sharing her knowledge. Sue contacted an organisation,

‘Anjali House’, to offer a workshop to teach creative writing to the students. These students were from extremely disadvantaged families with a passion for learning that brought them to study at the educational centre in Siem Reap. Their focus on adding art education to enrich the lives of these students made it the perfect place for Sue, a poet and writer, to bring her talents.

While the non-governmental organisation was thrilled with the offer, they countered with an important condition. It could not be a one-off, this would need to be the start of an ongoing relationship. And with that, the seed was planted.

The first workshop took place in 2010. Sue used her experience as a writer to teach the group of nervous students some strategies for brainstorming and exploring different themes. It was a hit! The students loved it and it became an annual trip to Cambodia to meet the students and keep working with them to help them develop their thinking skills, language fluency self-esteem and to find their unique voices.

Through these initial workshops, it became clear that this was filling a gap in the education system in Cambodia. Rote learning is the standard, and the students get very little space to explore ideas and express themselves. For many, this was the first time they were asked what they felt about something, and Sue was able to watch them slowly come out of their shells and really express themselves. Year after year, these students grew into teens and are now young adults with thriving careers and they are still in touch with Sue.

It also became clear that the issues they faced were not unique to their circumstances but were true for most students in Cambodia. Today we recognise that those same limitations exist across many marginalised groups and education systems worldwide, not just in Cambodia.

In 2014, a second non-governmental organisation in Cambodia approached Sue asking for her workshop. The big difference was that they operated on six campuses across the country, mostly in rural areas. This was the tipping point. It had officially grown into something bigger and at this point Writing Through was born. After becoming a US registered charity, it was time for growth. Sue hired staff and recognised the need for passionate people to be there when she couldn’t. A trip to Singapore and some meetings with communities there led to a pool of volunteers willing to fly to Cambodia and facilitate workshops around the country. Now, not only did the workshops help shape the lives of the students, but our volunteers were able to share their passions for writing and get to explore new places. Many even say that they feel as though they learned just as much as the participants.

What We Do

The mission of Writing Through has changed slightly through the years. Today, it is to use creative writing as a tool for teaching thinking skills, language fluency and self-esteem. We know that everyone has a voice and a story to tell, and we want to help amplify those voices. We do so in a number of ways, including the Big Event, where the participants stand up and proudly share their poems, journal entries or stories in front of an audience. We can help them reach a further audience through our anthologies, the first of which was published in 2019 and can be purchased from our website. Finally, we share poems, journal entries and stories on the Writing Through social media channels both in written form and as beautiful videos.

Our program uses tested pedagogy and creative tools to inspire insightful discussion, contemplation and finally, expression. We use our set of rules to make clear that this isn’t a regular classroom and that they should not be afraid to express themselves. We use various prompts related to the workshop theme or Big Idea and use a deductive approach to elicit empathetic thinking and deeper connections. Finally, we always write in English to help them break free of the typical rigidity they might have been taught or practiced in their writing up to that point. At the Big Event, they are presented with a magazine of their own work to take home as well as a certificate of achievement.

We work with very diverse populations, including disadvantaged teens, elderly women and young adults with disabilities. We have found over the years that our program works for

anyone. This is what has inspired us to continue growing the organisation and try to bring our workshops to as many people as possible.

COVID

Sue was on her annual trip to Cambodia in late February 2020 when the news about a new virus started getting a bit too close to home. In Siem Reap, there were no cases, but the US was starting to see a spread. This meant that Sue and her husband Don had to leave ahead of schedule just in case travel restrictions were implemented.

As we watched the world shut down and people everywhere being told to stay at home, our workshops began to be postponed and some cancelled. The Writing Through team began meeting over Zoom and discussing our fears and worries, and with that, we began to realise how helpful it was to talk to each other on opposite ends of the world. This is how we were inspired to begin offering free, online workshops to the public. We would have a few each week, some in Asian time zones and some in American time zones. We tailored the themes to what we were experiencing and introduced the group journal writing session. It was incredible! We had people joining from different backgrounds, countries, generations and situations. It was an incredible way to come together during such a scary and isolating time.

These also helped us to realise that we could take our full workshops online. By practicing and honing our skills with the public taster workshops, we learned what worked and what didn't and with that, we finally unlocked the potential to truly go global. We are now fully capable of running an entire workshop completely online. This means that we are not bound by physical location, and we can reach out to new partners wherever they are in the world. We were exclusively doing online workshops from March 2020 until December 2021.

Of course, online workshops only work in places where the participant all have access to the internet and devices and so not all our partners could move online. This meant that some were just postponed until we could meet again in person. We decided to use this downtime to really look inward and grow Writing Through into a scalable non-profit that was ready for expansion. Sue worked with a group of Harvard alumni to create a business plan, we worked with fundraising and grant writing consultants to upskill internally, and we wrote new training and facilitating guides. We stayed connected to our volunteers, partners, and supporters.

Where are we now?

We are very happy to say that everywhere we physically work is back to allowing gatherings and we have been very happy to come together once again and are able to continue using our new online techniques to reach those that choose to continue online.

Not only are we back with our old partners, but we have managed to add new ones in the past few months! We are always thrilled to be approached by organisations that have heard great things about us and want to work with us. It is this organic way of reaching people where we started and how we hope to continue.

We have also seen another organic expansion and that is in our new Chapter Model. We realised that we could work anywhere, with any partner as long as we have someone there to take charge. Throughout COVID, many of our volunteers spread out around the world and are itching to get involved again. We had a volunteer in Mexico come to us with two organisations in Oaxaca that were interested in having workshops and so the Mexico Chapter was born. Another volunteer who repatriated back to Australia saw the same need there as she witnessed in marginalised communities in Cambodia and is currently setting up a chapter there. All we need to begin somewhere new is someone to plant the seed and to have the passion to spread the mission of Writing Through.

Another volunteer of Writing Through moved back to the UK and is a Mathematics professor at the University of Southampton. When supervising masters’ theses, she found two students who were interested in non-profit work and they created algorithms to assess the poems coming from our workshops. This is incredible for showing the impact and evaluating the success of our techniques. We now have received a grant through the university and are in the midst of a randomised-controlled trial of our programs which we will hopefully be able to publish and will help us to continue monitoring and evaluating our programming. This is a necessary and difficult step that we still cannot believe we have been lucky enough to be performing under the guidance of such a talented and expert advisor.

We have come out of the pandemic stronger and more determined than ever to help people find their voices and to become global citizens ready to take on any challenges this world might throw at them. For more information, or to become involved in our work, contact us at …

info@writingthrough.org www.writingthrough.org