Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

“Orphan Meets Artist” Cambodia/Japan Final Workshop Held

The last of a three-part workshop series, “Hanbun Hanbun/Pakondal – Cambodian HIV/AIDS Orphans Meet Japanese Artists”, a collaborative program between Tokyo Development Learning Center and Tokyo Wonder Sitewas held on November 22 at Tokyo Wonder Site Aoyama.

Harumi Torii, founder and Representative Director of KIDS EARTH FUND gave a lecture to update participants on the current situation of children in Cambodia.

Ms. Torii established a pre-school in Tokyo for her son in 1988, which eventually led to the founding of the KIDS EARTH FUND. About 10 years ago, Torii visited Cambodia for the first time. She witnessed the dire situation of the country: its state of poverty, political instability, HIV/AIDS, land mines, and issues in education. The majority of the population in Cambodia lives under 200 yen a day and is unable to afford education for their children.

Amid a lack of infrastructure for education, the fund established a “Kids Earth Home” in an underdeveloped area of Cambodia in 2002 to provide food and shelter for children.

“Drawing can lead to self counseling” says Torii. “Through artistic experience, they gradually come to accept their reality and heal from their psychological trauma.”

The fund sells the children’s drawings, and from the profit earned, the children are not only “supported”; they are also able to support other children. The NPO aims to nurture self-dependence in children.

In the latter half of the event, together with the artists, participants went through a bookbinding process, using shots extracted from the video images of the 16 Cambodian children and their artwork during Session 2, held on November 15.

One of the artists who instructed the children in the workshop, Chikara Matsumoto, paid careful attention to the book binding process, putting the frames not in the order of pictures taken but in the order which would allow the children to feel joy in finding their own art work when they are flipping through the pages. For the cover, each of the 16 children’s art work was printed out and attached.

Every participant at the Tokyo venue also bound a flip book for one or two children, inserting personal messages and drawings into the last page along with the group photo of the workshop participants, and created “para para manga-cho”- ‘cut out animation’ flip books.

16 flip books were hand-made by artists and local participants. Together with their warm feelings, they will soon be sent out to the children in Cambodia.

Here are some comments from the participants;

“The children are cute. Cambodia is a distant country but I felt closer to the country.”
(Workshop participant)

” I’ve studied art and am interested in international cooperation, so I wanted to see how the two could be linked together. ”
(Workshop participant)

“I hope that there will be more opportunities like this so that it’d become more commonplace. I hope this initiative will continue”
(Workshop participant)

“I think that the Cambodian children will always remember having participated in the workshop. It is wonderful that the children can cherish their memories of the art workshop. I wonder how the children will react when they receive the flip book.”
(Artist Daisuke Nagaoka)

Video Archive

 
Please watch the event digest and the participants’ interview