It was a bright morning when all the children at the St. Joseph’s Mother and Child Center at Muketurri (Ethiopia), participated in painting their own school.
The 350 children together with the 7 children of the special class joined hands with the volunteers, Mrs. Maria from Argentina and a team from Madrid, to make their school beautiful.
Mrs. Pisca, an artist and a painter, wanted to do something that would involve the children, and could help them learn new skills. She brought in all the necessary materials to make sure children participated. And the end result was amazing! When asked, some of the children said, “It was my first wall painting, and I never thought that I was good at it!” Another child said, ”We all started with black paint and I thought, ‘Why so boring a colour?’ But now look at the end result!” One of the children from the special class cried out, “I can now paint!”
At the beginning I was of the same opinion as some of the children, for I too thought, “Oh dear, how would this be carried out and what would the end result be?” Firstly, imagine involving 350 children in painting the school, all the mess that would be created! Little did I realise that, when dealing with children, patience is much more important than the end result. Time and lots of love put into what we do, lead to beautiful results.
As the work progressed, I sat in front of the wall taking photos of how the activity, initially messy, was now taking on some real form slowly and it reached a point when we saw the first mango fruits! And I thought, “Something with colour has now taken shape”.
And after such a great effort there is always a prize, and all the 350 children received a packet of _Dulce de leche argentino_ (an Argentinian sweet made from milk) after their paint job. All the children carried the sweet back to school as a snack. This made them very happy and that day they went home feeling “accomplished”!
Let us move out of our comfort zones and share our talents with the little ones and make them feel that they are able to accomplish things so that they continue to learn more each day.
Enjoy the photos and see how a white wall was transformed into a piece of art through patience, hard work and love!
Lillian Omari
MCSPA
