Steve Russell meets Johnie McGlade and Rosie Waller, the team behind No Strings International, an extraordinary Newcastle-based charity using the power of puppetry to help some of the world's most vulnerable children.
Some great human endeavours are inspired by a noble desire to change the world, while others emerge from messing about with a dishevelled puppet! The incredible story of No Strings International is likely unique in residing in the latter category, as Johnie explains:
“No Strings came about thanks to a tatty puppet called Seamus, who was given to me by a friend in the Cayman Islands, when I was working there as a chef. Seamus became my drunken party piece and we had plenty of laughs! While in Cayman, I was fundraising for an Irish charity called GOAL, which eventually led me to work in humanitarian aid. My first assignment was South Sudan, where there were millions of displaced people, traumatised by war and famine. I’d taken Seamus along, thinking it would be a bit of entertainment for my fellow aid workers, but one day, I introduced him to the locals. The response was incredible, and I was instantly surrounded! Seamus proved far more effective than I ever was and it dawned on me that puppets had a captivating power we could use in all kinds of situations.”
Seamus soon found international fame, but like many rock stars, his life proved tragically short. However, his untimely demise triggered a wonderful, if scarcely believable, chain of events:
“Seamus eventually fell apart in my washing machine, but my flatmate at the time casually mentioned that her aunt and uncle happened to be veterans of The Muppet Show who could make me a new one!”
Two weeks later, a slightly bewildered Johnie found himself in New York, meeting with two of the world’s most celebrated puppeteers, Kathy Mullen and Michael Frith. Having spent 35 years mesmerising Western audiences (their credits include Animal, Fozzie Bear and Big Bird), the couple were already searching for ways of using puppetry to help children in the troubled regions of the world. Johnie’s serendipitous arrival presented them with an opportunity of realising that goal, and so it was that replacing Seamus (with the right honourable Hamish) became a mere footnote in a remarkable story. Their first venture was ChucheQhalin, a landmine awareness project for children in Afghanistan. It made a profound impact on a generation of Afghan children devastated by conflict, and its success went on to define the blueprint for future collaborations.
The NSI model involves the production of symbolic, puppet-based films, expertly crafted by the US creative team, led by Kathy and Michael. The films feature narratives rooted in national and regional culture, developed in tandem with local communities. The concept is to create a magical version of the environment inhabited by the target audience, where difficult issues can be easier to confront. After viewing the films, children are encouraged to express their feelings through play, using a range of real-life puppets and other techniques such as shadow puppetry. Johnie describes the impact of their work:
“Puppets give children a voice: they have the advantage of deflecting attention, so even shy children can participate. There are lots of stories about how children will eagerly express things from ‘behind’ a puppet that they wouldn’t normally have the courage to talk about openly.”
It’s a formula which has proved hugely successful, with ongoing projects across the globe tackling issues like HIV awareness, conflict resolution, the importance of good hygiene and how to cope with natural disasters like tsunamis or earthquakes. Working alongside major international aid organisations and countless local community groups, No Strings have touched the lives of millions of children, a feat recognised when they received the prestigious Adela Dwyer-St Thomas of Villa Nova Peace Award in 2016.
Johnie’s wife, former Newcastle Evening Chronicle and BBC journalist Rosie Waller, has been No Strings’ Programmes Manager for the past ten years, and explains how training local people gives their projects longevity:
“The power of our projects is mostly in the hands of the local facilitators. The films are the starting point, but we also deliver training workshops, teaching local people how to use puppets to reinforce the message within their communities. They often adapt our programmes after we’ve left and it’s interesting to see where they go.”
Puppeteers can appear in the most unexpected guises and Rosie is constantly amazed by the willingness of people across all cultures to engage:
“I remember being in Iraq and our partners had selected some ex-military guys for our training programme. They were really serious looking and I just thought ‘what on earth am I going to do here!?’. By the afternoon they were fighting over goggly eyes to put on stick puppets!”
What connects all No Strings projects is their infectious sense of hope, epitomised by the lyrics of the song featured in their Haitian films, produced in the wake of the devastating earthquake of 2010: you can change things, you can make things better, because the magic is in you. As the team get prepared to travel to Bangladesh to work in the Rohingya refugee camps, let’s hope that their own brand of magic is around for a long time yet.
Find out how you can support this inspirational charity @ www.nostrings.org.uk