"Children in Palestine, dream of Peace& Freedom"
When media talk about Palestine and the dramatically situation who lives the country always forget children, the daily life, their daily life under occupation… They are an ordinary kids, with ordinary dreams who just wants to live their childhood in a peaceful environment.
But, even in the worst situation, you'll find someone trying to draw a smile on the children's faces. Samih Abu Zakieh, a Palestinian artist, is a good example of this. His heart is full of love ready to help children, to support them. This passion, the same he uses for his paintings, helps children of Hebron to develop themselves in such a dramatic situation.
In 1994, after the Massacre of the Abraham Mosque in Hebron where 36 inhabitants were killed by a settler, Samih, with some of his colleagues, decided to do an artistic workshop. With this workshop they pretended to let children draw and play to relief the effect of the violent shock they had after the brutal massacre.
He would never imagine the effect of this tragedy in the children before see their drawings, which were just in two colors, red and black. The use of these colors was a clear sign of the massacre's effect on children. The black color expresses the sadness while red expresses the blood which filled the streets of that area, especially inside the great Islamic mosque.
From the suffering to the creativity
After this impacting experience Samih and his colleagues Fayez, Ayda, Diyab, Na'ila, Samia and many others were ready for the next step, establish a organization for children , where Art and Children were the priorities, trying to relief the impact . There, they could also play, dance, sing, smile, and learn. This was the first purpose of the PCAC, Palestinian Child Arts Centre.
Step by step, from the simple and humble work, PCAC has developed to an organization which organized their work to develop the children's skills and capabilities. Ceremonies, festivals, art workshops, art exhibitions are a good example of this change.
Child's Rights has a special importance in this center, during over past years they try to let know children and society everything about this convention, always through arts.
Future of PCAC
Its well knows this center all over Palestine but not only here has been recognized the work of Palestinian Child Arts Center. The center has achieved compliments from all over the world. As Samih says" we are poor, we don't have the money, but we have the thoughts and creativity ".
When they started working for the Arts Olympiad 2007, they faced many problems. The most important and struggle one was/is the economic crisis who is living the country and the impossibility to leave or move inside the country. "We are not able to leave the city whenever we want, but in fact we live as we're inside a cage. They open the doors for us whenever they desire". That situation doesn't help to the appropriate develop of the center programs and desires.
They can't and they don't forget the main aim of this center, children, even the situation seems impossible. The risk of murder, siege, eviction or home demolishing is there, and those children can just think about how to survive, not about fun activities.
The drawings of the Olympiad are full of suffering. When they were asked about the topic, Art & Sport, and about the relation of those topics with children, it was amazing their answers." Palestinian sport is in danger, we as children are not able even to play. Look at our drawings to see the tragedy we live in".
But there is a little ray of hope, even the political/economical situation is getting worst in the last days, PCAC and Samih will continue the work that started 12 years ago. Never give up, children are the future of Palestine, the political actors of tomorrow, and not just PCAC, all the society must works for them.
When media talk about Palestine and the dramatically situation who lives the country always forget children, the daily life, their daily life under occupation… They are an ordinary kids, with ordinary dreams who just wants to live their childhood in a peaceful environment.
But, even in the worst situation, you'll find someone trying to draw a smile on the children's faces. Samih Abu Zakieh, a Palestinian artist, is a good example of this. His heart is full of love ready to help children, to support them. This passion, the same he uses for his paintings, helps children of Hebron to develop themselves in such a dramatic situation.
In 1994, after the Massacre of the Abraham Mosque in Hebron where 36 inhabitants were killed by a settler, Samih, with some of his colleagues, decided to do an artistic workshop. With this workshop they pretended to let children draw and play to relief the effect of the violent shock they had after the brutal massacre.
He would never imagine the effect of this tragedy in the children before see their drawings, which were just in two colors, red and black. The use of these colors was a clear sign of the massacre's effect on children. The black color expresses the sadness while red expresses the blood which filled the streets of that area, especially inside the great Islamic mosque.
From the suffering to the creativity
After this impacting experience Samih and his colleagues Fayez, Ayda, Diyab, Na'ila, Samia and many others were ready for the next step, establish a organization for children , where Art and Children were the priorities, trying to relief the impact . There, they could also play, dance, sing, smile, and learn. This was the first purpose of the PCAC, Palestinian Child Arts Centre.
Step by step, from the simple and humble work, PCAC has developed to an organization which organized their work to develop the children's skills and capabilities. Ceremonies, festivals, art workshops, art exhibitions are a good example of this change.
Child's Rights has a special importance in this center, during over past years they try to let know children and society everything about this convention, always through arts.
Future of PCAC
Its well knows this center all over Palestine but not only here has been recognized the work of Palestinian Child Arts Center. The center has achieved compliments from all over the world. As Samih says" we are poor, we don't have the money, but we have the thoughts and creativity ".
When they started working for the Arts Olympiad 2007, they faced many problems. The most important and struggle one was/is the economic crisis who is living the country and the impossibility to leave or move inside the country. "We are not able to leave the city whenever we want, but in fact we live as we're inside a cage. They open the doors for us whenever they desire". That situation doesn't help to the appropriate develop of the center programs and desires.
They can't and they don't forget the main aim of this center, children, even the situation seems impossible. The risk of murder, siege, eviction or home demolishing is there, and those children can just think about how to survive, not about fun activities.
The drawings of the Olympiad are full of suffering. When they were asked about the topic, Art & Sport, and about the relation of those topics with children, it was amazing their answers." Palestinian sport is in danger, we as children are not able even to play. Look at our drawings to see the tragedy we live in".
But there is a little ray of hope, even the political/economical situation is getting worst in the last days, PCAC and Samih will continue the work that started 12 years ago. Never give up, children are the future of Palestine, the political actors of tomorrow, and not just PCAC, all the society must works for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment