We have had two streams of working with young people in the refugee camp. Patricio has been running workshops with kids to transform a very common object in this bleak environment (rocks) into precious stones, things of beauty. An early breakthrough came with the thought of combining two undesirable aspects – fences and rocks – into a new way to view them.
Then, after a dash to the paint shop in the nearest town, the workshop got going. Originally intended to be for children, the staff couldn’t resist getting involved to. From the security guards to the boss man, everybody was keen to have a go and create their own precious stone.
By the end of the day the fence was transformed into a glittering, vertical Aladdin’s cave. When we left for the night people were approaching the fence with a look of wonder. Beauty is hard to come by in this environment and the combination of colour and sparkle made each stone an individual work of art.
No great surprise then that by morning all of the stones had disappeared, been untied and taken away to be part of individual refugees’ temporary homes.
At first it was a shock, but we quickly came to realise that this degree of engagement, of hunger for beautiful objects was a strong endorsement of the idea. More paint was procured and more workshops organised.
The bigger plan is that next Tuesday – when it is Eid, normally a time of great festivities in Muslim communities but with little to look forward to for residents here – Patricio will run a giant rock dipping event. Our crazy ambitious target is that every child (over 4000 of them) gets the chance to make a rock. They will then be displayed on the tall, barbed wire topped fence around the school.
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[…] can see more about the exciting developments on the art side here, this posting is about the people and the […]