Project Mexico

So, why Mexico?

Mexico is one of the most densely populated Latin American countries. Despite having one of the largest economies, nearly half of Mexico’s population live in poverty, 20 million of whom are  children. This has led to malnutrition, high rates of child labour, violence at home and in schools and high rates of underage marriage among girls. Alongside this is the systematic discrimination of the indigenous children. With Wind-Up Penguin, we bring a giant dose of happiness and inspiration through music and theatre, in order for these young people to get a well-deserved breath of fresh air and to channel their energy into something creative.

We also hope to reach some of the Central American migrant communities making their way through Mexico to the USA. In a time when the developed western world is sending them messages of walls and division Wind-Up Penguin will throw in a dose of friendship and laughter. 

You can read more about our previous project to Mexico here.


Photos from our previous project in Mexico

The project…

Team members: Six or seven people, either acting or music students. We’re very keen on having a mixture of musicians and actors, as the show will be devised mixing physical theatre and musical instrument playing. Leading the team is our Emperor Penguin, Elisabeth Swedlund!

Dates of the project: From 21st August - 8th September.

Devising the show: The whole team will meet up throughout the summer to devise the show and workshop. A Penguin show usually lasts about 45 minutes, and gets everyone involved in the music and the acting. A good way to describe our performances is ‘storytelling through music and movement’. The show is followed by a workshop!

Where in Mexico? We will be staying Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca and Chiapas. These are among the poorest regions of Mexico, home to many slums, NGO’s, and orphanages. 

Performances? We will perform the show and workshop once or twice a day, to underprivileged children and teenagers. We will be going inside the orphanages, slums, and NGO premises to perform and work. It’s all a very thrilling and a humbling human experience.

What language will we speak? The performances and workshops are wordless – because the children do not speak English. We will use Spanish to get around, Elisabeth can speak Spanish, but you’re all encouraged to learn as much as you can!

Will I get to see the country? Yup! Obviously this is in no way a touristic/vacation trip, but some time will be set aside after performances to stroll around. We think that visiting and interacting with local communities is the best way to visit a country anyway.

A few words about how we operate…

We’re a grassroots group of students and graduates, who produce these tours abroad on our free time. We choose to commit to this cause because we strongly believe in the transformative power of Penguin experiences, for children and training performers alike. Basically, we absolutely love it. As of now, since we're all volunteers, we don't have the time resources to apply for funding, so we ask the participants to fundraise the costs of the trips themselves. This model is very much suited and designed for musicians and actors who are currently training - but we accept applications from everyone! So here’s the deal:

The project costs £1600 per person. This covers absolutely everything: Flights to and from London, travel to and from performances, travel between cities, all accommodation and food during the project, and a £200 development fee to cover production costs and keep these projects running.

  • Each member will pay £150 as an inscription cost by 1st December,

  • A second payment of £600 will then be required by 10th January to be able to purchase flights,

  • And your team will communally fundraise the rest, i.e. £850 per person, through a fundraising campaign with many activities.

How this Fundraising campaign works:

  • We start now;

  • Each member of this project agrees to take part in the activities we’ll be doing (concerts, cake sales, charity concerts, internet JustGiving page… whatever comes to your brilliant creative minds). The profits are then split equally between all team members;

  • For the past two years, all our projects have raised over £500 per person. Considering the fact that we’re a growing organisation and that each new project always raises more funding than the previous one, I’m pretty confident that the team will reach its goal;

  • If we don’t reach our goal of raising £850 per person (as mentioned – this goal is highly achievable), each member of the team is still liable to pay for the missing amount for this trip (as Wind-Up Penguin doesn’t actually have the extra funding), so it’s all about whether you’re up for a fundraising challenge!

  • Exceeding this fundraising goal means each member could even get up to £450 back from the £650 initial payment;

  • Fundraising will take up a little of your time, but it’s great team bonding, and all of our members have always enjoyed taking part in these activities;

  • We can chat at your interview more in detail about this and show you our detailed strategy of how we’ll achieve our goal.