Art day at the Rohingya refugee camp
A few days back, I went to the Balukhali Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar.
It all started when Adam Ostaszewski from Queens, NY — a stranger to me at that time — contacted me through my Facebook page and asked me for my support to start an art camp at the Rohingya camps.
It felt like this was something I was waiting for. After the recent anti-insurgency operation by the Myanmar army in Rakhine I did a series of cartoons on the crisis and gave them away for free to different media agencies around the globe in order to spread the awareness as much as possible. But still I felt I wasn’t doing enough, whereas a lot of my friends were doing more for this situation.
So, when Adam mentioned his plan, it felt like the perfect opportunity for me to use my art expertise with the Rohingya children to create some kind of a support system to help them recover from the mental trauma they had suffered.
So on the morning of December 4, me, Adam, Laura Del Castillo, Dr Sabrin shohelly, photographer Szymon Barylski (www.szymonbarylski.com), Hanisa Abd Rahman (A banker from Singapore who raised money by herself and came to help) and Armaan khan started for the Balukhali camp with a bag full of art materials.
Our destination was an orphanage maintained by the united sikhs in the Balukhali camp where more then 200 kids were waiting for us. Though a few of us worried about handling the large number of kids at the workshop, I wasn’t worried a bit.
I thought of it as we were all kids and were looking forward to a fun-filled day with lots of engagement and humor.
After reaching the orphanage at the camp, we had a very energetic welcome from everyone.
Reality hit when I started the workshop.
The language barrier dawned on me, and the sheer size of the group certainly made it even harder to communicate, as some of us had already guessed.
But then two of our local friends Armaan khan and Noor came to the rescue. They knew both the Rohingya and Bangla languages, and started translating what I was saying. Quickly, I also picked up words like “lekho” as in to draw, and “badda” as in big.
So I shouted “badda lekho” as in “draw big.” While teaching them how to draw people, I learned to say, “Lekho marad puwa, maiya puwa,” as in, “draw this boy and girl.” These were my first Rohingya words to them.
Midway through the workshop, we — the kids and the grownups realized we didn’t need much of a vocal language when it comes to art. I started to draw and they kept on following.
We played games through drawing without even talking. It was our lines and eyes that spoke, as if we were all a part of the same harmony for hours on end.
A few obstacles came in the way when we were giving the kids different art materials to share among each other, rather than giving everyone the same things. That was one of the major mistakes I made.
It didn’t occur to me before that it was such a tough time; when everyone is struggling to survive, any resource is very precious and worth fighting for. It didn’t matter if it’s food or art supplies.
But this wrong decision of mine also forced us to begin a discussion with the kids in separate groups to make them understand how important it is for them to not to fight over resources, but to share and help each other in these trying times. Dr Sabrin also conducted a hygiene session with the kids separately, when they were done with their drawings.
At the end of the day, everyone poured out their hearts into what they drew.In some paintings, there were the horrors they and their family had faced, and some others contained the dreams they have. But mostly, the pages were filled with doodles, the sky, butterflies, and all the innocence that every child possesses.
The art day wouldn’t have been successful without the efforts of all our friends, especially Laura, Hanisa, and Noor the translator. You would be happy to know this is only the beginning of this art scene at the Rohingya camp.
Max Frieder, the Co-Founder of Artolution (an international community-based public art organisation) and an expert on refugee camp-based community art project, will be joining us this month. This may also be the start of the Bangladesh chapter of Artolution.
After starting this first ever art camp, many people have already come forward and offered their support. The art supplies we bought for the kids were funded by the money Adam raised from gofundme.com.
If you want to support in any way and/or collaborate with this art project, you can contact me and also directly donate to the link here: https://www.gofundme.com/rohingya-refugee-crisis
After all, kids are just kids and it is our responsibility to secure a beautiful world for them, far away from all the rage, hatred, and blame games of nations.
To see my other international art projects with children, visit:
https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/images/files/Rivers-of-the-World-Bangladesh-Sylhet.pdf
