With an aim to use art for a cause to bring smiles back on the faces of internally displaced children from the calamity-hit areas across the country, Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal (PBM) association with Universal Women Children Art Therapy Association (UWCATA) on Sunday organised an art therapy workshop for 3,000 children at sports complex.
The art therapy workshop was conducted by Samina Jamshed, which she conducted for 3,000 orphan boys and girls of Pakistan Sweet Homes. The UWCATA gave the children crayons and colored papers to take the workshop. Being the director of this NGO and art director of Media Vision, she utilizes all her facilities for children saying she can go to any length to reach out for them.
This time again she manages to add something unique to her workshop which shows her golden side or I must say God gifted element that she is over flowing with these ideas and she put them to practice also, well she has compiled a wish list for these 3,000 children also which she shall fulfill, so now she has 3,000 wishes to fulfill, not only this but she will put up an exhibition of the art pieces of these children in an art gallery for sale.
The money generated from that exhibition will go back to these orphan children, every child whose work will be sold will get the money from his sold painting, Jamshed says, adding by doing so she will manage to add confidence in these young minds that if they do something with effort it pays back. They will get the taste of their first earning. Jamshed strongly believes in polishing young minds, but the technique she uses is unique in itself, because she believes in putting awareness unconsciously rather than saying the words out to them. She says that “I wait for the child to say the words out to me rather than I say them to him.” That is the challenge she puts up for herself and her team before every workshop and until the target is not achieved the workshop is not considered a success.
Apart from the exhibition, she has also committed to MD Mr Zummurad Khan that she will voluntarily work on compiling a detail record of every individual child. That she will do by studying their paintings and drawings each one at a time, by doing so she will discover the emotional, psychological and physical abilities.
Jamshed will also chalk out every child’s different phobias, so that they could be given attention on that level and help should be provided to overcome those phobias. This would help them to become strange citizens of Pakistan. I must say this would be a huge contribution on Samina Jamshed’s behalf because else where millions are spent to form such records for this hats off to her. She says it will take couple of months before she submits the record, by doing so she is a blessing in disguise for these angles.
She does have a question for the Pappa Jani of these Angles which is “Why only boys?” She strongly suggested him to adopt girls now. She is willing to give her maximum time if he puts up a school for orphan Girls in Hunza, Gulmit, Chitral, Khyber Agency, and Sakardu, any of these remote areas. She will give her services full time for that first step.
Her future projects are more amazing which I would like to share. She plans to visit Khyber Agency to conduct workshop for girls and to visit Kabul to cover schools and Iran to conduct workshop for poor school. By doing this, she can compare the mental trauma level of children at these places. To be exact, now she wishes to build a bridge between children universally.
She works for children, whether orphans, single parents, single orphans, with parents, special children, street children, beggars, prostitute child or disabled child.
Jamshed has a very strong educational background with masters in fine arts, English literature and diploma in art therapy.
Since 2005, the UCWATA has conducted 96 workshops at different places in Pakistan starting from Pussu, Susst, Hunza, Chitral, Gulmit, Malot Village Baharakahu and in many other remote villages of Punjab. The workshops are mainly conducted for internally displaced people, traumatised, flood affected, sexually harassed and special children. The types of workshop include art therapy, dialogue therapy, music therapy, performing art, creative writing and sharing therapy. During every workshop, Jamshed compile a wish list that includes wishes of different children and at the end UCWATA fulfills one wish of every child.
In this particular workshop, she again planned to compile a wish list of children and fulfill their wishes at the end of workshop. Apart from that, she also planned to put up the children work in a gallery and money generated from sold art pieces will be transferred to that particular boy whose work has been sold.
Jamshed further committing herself to her work decides that she will read the paintings of 3,000 boys individually in three months and will be able to find out the cause of their mental, psychological and emotional traumma. This will be a huge accomplishment on the part of Miss Jamshed to find out the cause of 3,000 children mental stress and to treat them according to their record.
In the end Jamshed appreciated the efforts of Mr Zummurud Khan regarding Pakistan Sweet Homes but there is one question which she wants to ask “Why not Girls”.
