Raul Camborda & Djura Dame

Raul Camborda is 25 years old. His nationality is peruvian and he works as personal trainer and together with his wife Djura, he has a trapeze act. He was always fond of the circus but from the moment he got to know Djura, he was even more attracted and therefore he decided to work with Djura in her projects. Beside teaching, his job during the last Project in Argentina, was to make a documentary about the project.
In the centre they will construct in Peru, Raúl will teach circus, sports and he will have the final coordination of the centre.

Djura Dame born on 23rd of august 1977 in Amsterdam. Already at young age she felt passion for the circus. Already at the age of 6 you could find her at the children’s circus Elleboog. She performed throughout Holland and Belgium until the age of 17, then volunteered to teach children. Now she only works with Elleboog for special events.

The past few years she toured with two small circuses and performed at all kind of festvities. Her passion for the circus also gave her the inspiration to give workshops and lessons, especially to children in bad life-circumstances. This led to several projects abroad.
In 1997, she went to Sarajevo with a group of five from foundation Capriool to teach at a school in Hrasno, the most damaged part of the town during the war. The walls are full of bullet holes and many of the buildings were burned down. By giving circus lessons, they tried to give the children the
opportunity to forget the pain from the war and to just feel like a child and play. With this great experience still in her head, she traveled again in 2000. This time she went to Zimbabwe with Lisa van der Winden where they did their own project in Gokwe-north, the poorest part of Zimbabwe. The people are cooping with great difficulties: low water supply, hungry elephants who eat the already poor harvest etc. Because of these things, some people do not have enough money to send their children to school. Daily life for these children consists of working in the fields and trying to survive. There is no time to play. They lack self-confidence because they are constantly told that they are stupid and not worth anything. Especially for these children there is a project called “out of school program” where they are taught a little bit of mathematics and grammar, as well as dance and story telling. The project fit perfectly in the program. After a few weeks of training, the children gave a performance for the whole village. It was a real success. She learned a lot there and it was an experience she will never forget: so involved in the lives of children in a culture so totally different from hers. It was a pleasure to bring so much joy to children with so little means. Warde, one of the children, said to us just before the show, “what you did is so great… the clothing, the face paint, we won’t be shy anymore!”

In 2001, she went to Peru, again with Lisa van der Winden. They used the same philosophies and goals as in Zimbabwe, but this time they worked with children from the street. They worked at a place called “Gente del Manana,” where the kids were cared for by getting food and lessons in trades like painting, sewing etc. In 2003 she returned there to profound her project. They worked with the same old group as well as with new ones. In 2003 she also went with Lisa van der Winden to Uganda to work for World Vision. In 2004 she went to Chile and her most recent project was in Argentina, april, may of 2005 and for the future she is planning a cultural centre in Huancayo, Peru.
Apart from the circus she studied one year italian language and culture.