LAHORE: Heroes for a day is a campaign to highlight role models within the society so that others can gain inspiration from their stories.
Talking to Pakistan Today, the campaign head, Sarah Tareen, said that it is a worldwide participatory art project conducted in collaboration with INSIDE OUT.
“It is inspired from French street artist, JR, and provides a global platform for people to share their untold stories and transform messages of personal identity into works of public art,” Tareen shared, adding that it was held in the Mozambique slums last year with the subject being people affected by AIDS.
“Last Thursday, we did a campaign for children who are working at workshops and have left schools but they are still are role models for slum children as they are trying to empower themselves through Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and Shaheen Academy,” she shared, adding the exhibition was all about their resilience.
Tareen, who herself is an MMA fighter and trainer, said that she has been following the children of Shaheen Academy and is aware of how hard life is for them but still they have established their own micro world, despite the odds.
Sharing the benefit of the INSIDE OUT campaign, she said that Heroes for a day is basically to encourage those children by putting up their portraits for a day as a role model for the area.
“It shows that these children are resilient heroes of their own lives and they are doing something about it,” she said.
Tareen is also a documentary maker and currently directing a documentary titled Kids Fight following the lives of children in Charar Pind and how mixed martial arts might be the very fight for their lives.
Shaheen MMA Academy was established by Pakistan MMA Godfather Bashir Ahmed, promoting the philosophy of ‘peace through sports’.
“This is where we hope to inspire and motivate kids and teens to be the best version of themselves as role models and leaders, hoping to use the power of martial arts to change the lives of the poor and disadvantaged kids of Charrar Pind,” Basir said.