Drawing on walls, a space of hope for IDP children northern Aleppo
The children of “Berxwedana Serdem” IDP center gather around plastic cans of colors, trying to create colors which express them, and reflect their surroundings.
The Union of Intellectuals of Afrin region in northern Aleppo countryside, within the IDP center, held an event for drawing on the center’s walls and on the caravan that contains the library of the center.
The Union of Intellectuals chose the park and the square of the center inside the camp, in order to change the usual stereotype, by decorating its walls with drawings “Make the place an expression of the love of life”, according to the administration of the Intellectuals’ Union.
As for the reasons of the initiative, Zozan Muhammad, a member of the Board of Directors of the Union of intellectuals, told North-Press, “Children are the most affected by war, they are the most sensitive to the conditions of displacement, and we have made this activity to keep them away from that atmosphere.”
She also pointed out that most of the drawings expressed the nature of Afrin, which the children miss “olive trees, Afrin River, doves, and roses.”
Ronijan Sinu, 15 years old boy, who painted an olive tree on the center’s wall, described his painting by saying: “I painted an olive tree on a wall because it reminds me of my city that I was forced to leave a year ago”.
Muhammad Sheikh Daddah, 12 years old boy, who was focusing on final touches, he adds to his portrait, impersonated an artist preoccupied with his masterpiece, he says while carrying a plastic pack of drawing colors, that he drew a painting similar to what he painted in Afrin, “But I couldn’t take my painting out with me as I left my homeland, so I wanted to redraw it here.”
Berxwedana Serdem Center – Northern Aleppo
Dejla Khalil – NPA