“Just because they embarked on an adventure and came back doesn’t mean they are failures”: the challenge of the Body Acceptance programme

Expressing the unspeakable and using it to convey a message is the challenge that a group of eight women have taken up through an innovative programme of psychosocial support activities called “Body Acceptance”.

Leveraging dance as a form of non-verbal expression, this innovative programme aims to explore psychosocial distress management through art. For two months, I attended dance sessions with seven female returnees who have been involved since 2019 in the “Migrants as Messengers” (MaM) project, of which I am a volunteer.

Through dance expression, we try to deconstruct the shame linked to return while raising awareness about the risks associated with irregular migration. I was immediately interested in the project because it allowed me to do what I love, which is to guide and advise people to make better choices through awareness raising. It was also important for me to get involved in raising awareness about irregular migration because of the impact of this phenomenon on the future of many young Africans and family unity.

When I joined the MaM project as a volunteer in 2019, the feeling among the volunteers grew very quickly. We were all driven by one goal, to raise awareness and save lives.

As part of The MaM project, these community-based activities aim to rebuild links in all social dimensions and engage the project’s volunteers in a better awareness of mental health and its importance as an essential component of moral, physical and social well-being.

The spirit being the basis of all achievements, I think that moral well-being is essential for the development of individuals, and especially for returnees who experienced enormous difficulties. Their moral well-being must be a necessity, as they are prone to recidivism or depression.

Dance is just a way to express ourselves, be listened to, talk to each other and share our feelings and painful experiences. During each rehearsal, there were discussions in which each of us could speak openly. 

For the founder of the Body Acceptance programme, Paule Marie Assandre, “self-expression through creativity contributes to deconstructing any feeling of fatality and opening up possibilities, i.e., moving forward to develop one’s potential by seeking out all the resources within oneself.”

This programme allowed me to heal many things that I had in me since my childhood, it allowed me to assert myself, have confidence in myself and also give me the right to deserve happiness.

Eight weeks of rehearsals led to a show on 17 June 2022 where we shared the fruit of our work in front of nearly 300 people. We chose the theme “Journey” (Parcours, in French) collectively to bring a message of positivity and resilience to our communities.

In addition to dance, the awareness-raising event at the Institut Français de Côte d’Ivoire combined slam with a photo exhibition. Five MaM volunteers participated in slam text writing classes under the guidance of professional slammers, Amee La Slameuse and Taho Onesime.

“Although the return was marked by stigmatization from some relatives because of what they called failure, expressing ourselves about our experience allowed us to feel it as a strength by informing about the real dangers of the migration journey,” says Diarrassouba Maimouna, one of MaM volunteers.

She lost her whole family during the Mediterranean crossing. When she returned, she volunteered to tell her story. She also participated in the Body Acceptance programme, which helped her to accept herself, live in harmony with herself and gain confidence. “We were also able to discover many opportunities where we hadn’t seen any, discover the ability to undertake and be able to succeed here.”

Each one here inspires the story of the others. Everything we went through; we choose to leave it behind. We want to express the joy and pride of what we have achieved.

So, let’s dance!

Today, with the support of IOM, Awa Cissé and the group have set up an association that works for returnee reintegration in Côte d’Ivoire, ARM-CI. Awa also joined Radio Africa as a trainee and wishes to continue to work to raise awareness among her peers about the risks they run when they embark on irregular migration.