ActionAid Palestine to Support a Training of Painting for Talented Children in Gaza
Expressing their Dreams through Paintings
The Child sponsorship Program of ActionAid Palestine (AAP) funded by people of Greece and UK supported Al-Aqsa Sport Club based in Gaza Strip to implement a training of drawing and handcrafts. It targeted 10 talented children nominated by the schools. Drawing aims at mitigating the psychosocial impact of conflicts and blockade on the lives of children in Gaza. Through drawings, children were provided with a space to be creative and productive.
The training lasted for seven months focusing on many techniques of drawing as; drawing by using acrylic colors, drawing by using pastel colors, recycling materials from surrounding environment and integrate them with the drawings. The children were given the opportunity to imitate drawings and styles of famous painters who were hosted in the training and they also enjoyed talking to them.
The children drew 200 pictures. After the end of training sessions, an exhibition of drawings was organized during December of 2019 as an outcome of the training to show their paintings. This exhibition was opened in the presence of community leaders, representatives of international and local organizations, schoolteachers, school students and their parents expressing their happiness towards the beauty of drawings and creativity of children.
The children expressed their messages that they have tried to send through their drawings to the world. They reflect their dream of enjoying their right of decent life as the rest of the children world as well as the reality.
Paintings usually reflect dreams for children in many countries, but dreams of Gaza’s school children are different as they have witnessed destruction, displacement and death over years of repeated cycles of military conflict. They were born and live in an enclave that spans just 365 square kilometers, isolated from the rest of the world and ravaged by poverty and high unemployment.
ActionAid’s Child Sponsorship programme seeks to save funds needed to implement different projects in the poorest and most marginalized communities around the world. The programme based on linking the Palestinian child with the sponsor from other countries by providing regular financial donations that will be used to finance development programs aiming to improve the surrounding environment of children. Funds are directly used for developing community and improving the conditions and welfare of children.
Background Information
ActionAid
ActionAid is ActionAid is a global federation working for a world free from poverty and injustice. It is a leading international charity working in over 45 countries. We work with the poorest women and children in the world, changing their lives for good. Our local staff provide immediate, hands-on support to women and children living on the margins of survival. Together we demand action at local, national and international level. We don’t walk away until we’ve achieved lasting change.
ActionAid in Palestine (AAP) started as a program of ActionAid Australia (formerly Austcare) in 2007 and was approved as an ActionAid Country Program, managed by the International Secretariat in 2012. AAP works to strengthen the resilience of Palestinian communities, building the active agency of women and young people to understand their rights and undertake collective activism to address the protracted rights violations resulting from the prolonged occupation of Palestine. In its engagement with communities, AAP works simultaneously with women and youth groups to enhance their leadership capacity and knowledge to practice their citizenship in holding authorities and other duty bearers to account.
For More Information, Please Contact
Riham Jafari
Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication
Mobile: +972(0)595242890
office:+972(0)(2)2213137
Email: Riham.Jafari@actionaid.org