Non-Profit Organisation & Student Club Around Jakarta
Empowering individuals, one paintbrush at a time.
our events
Hope Learning Center Event 2018
We organized a painting workshop for 12-20-year-old refugees from Afghanistan and Iran. This event aimed to celebrate the cultures of communities that are deprived of their normal lifestyles.
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This event sparked in mind when we thought it would be a great idea to expand our cause to other communities. Luckily, we contacted a school club which came to this Hope Learning centre weekly to teach them various extracurriculars. The club was willing to work with our cause and later we successfully organised this painting workshop for these refugees.
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Hope Learning centre is a school and housing complex for refugees who were forced to flee from their home due to war conflicts.
Naturally, the students we taught wanted to paint something that holds comfort and memories of their hometown to them. Many of them drew place or objects that symbolised their hometown's cultural value.
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While we painted, we spoke to the kids about their experience having to move to an entirely different country with an entirely different culture and community. We were amazed at how they were able to assimilate so easily.
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"I miss my friends."
"I've lived here for several months. And the plan is to live here for another few years. This transition won't stop me from becoming a lawyer though."
These are some phrases that stook with me as we came towards the end of the session.
These are the paintings that were produced at the end of the workshop. Despite facing hardship at a young age, the students still had a strong sense of ambition, strive, and optimism for the future. I look up to that.
-Isabel
pAINT YOUR HISTORY:
"PRESERVING OUR INDONESIAN CULTURE "EXHIBITION
Why did we decide to make this exhibition?
We were brainstorming ideas on how we could raise funds for the children taught under Paint Your History while also be able to showcase the artworks they've done so far over the past year in our session. Many of the children we teach come from families who migrated away from their hometowns in rural parts of Indonesia to Jakarta in hopes of better job prospects. We wanted to help them jumpstart their careers and stable lifestyles by raising funds so that their kids could go to school and their parents can find jobs.
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A silent-bidding auction was a great idea to raise significant funding for this project. In the same time, this event gave us the opportunity to show off how talented these children happen to be. Each had unique ideas to express their love from their own indigenous hometown culture and each had the power to spread the awareness of keeping our distinct heritage in a technology-oriented world.
The art pieces were organised in clusters of themes. The paintings in the image below show how the dragon 'Ogoh-Ogoh' themed paintings were allocated in a straight line position, close together. The Ogoh-Ogoh is a mythical creature built by traditions in Bali, Indonesia. They symbolise the purification of our polluted natural environment. A few of the children we teach have family leaving in Bali. They decided that celebrating the Ogoh-Ogoh is a traditional element that sets them apart from their peers.
Here are Della, Ellen and I introducing the aims of this exhibition as well as stating why we think preserving our heritage is important. Our culture is what preserves our sense of place in a community. It is what moulds our identities. It is a means of expressing creativity.
We printed artworks that the children did onto T-shirts which were sold in the exhibition. The T-shirts had the paintings in the back and a name 'Paint Your History' tagged on the front right corner side. The merchandise also included mugs and postcards.
