The Xenophobia Project Using Expressive Arts Therapies To Educate South African Learners About The Experiences Of Migrants

Abstract

This paper describes the Xenophobia Project, a social justice outreach initiative which the author, Sarah Penny, led in Cape Town between 2017 and 2019. The goal of the programme was try to put in place resources as a strategy to change xenophobic attitudes in teen learners in the city. The paper examines how the project was conducted, referencing theory from the growing field of Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP). It also looks at the impact of the project, and considers why CWTP is a powerful and ethical route to working with social justice in communities, particularly in communities with limited resources.