Students in Haviland Hage’s art classes at Christopher High School and Mt. Madonna Continuation High School have recently completed portraits of children living in Afghanistan as part of the Memory Project, according to a recent school district announcement.
The Memory Project is a charitable non-profit organization that invites art teachers, art students and solo artists to help cultivate global kindness by creating portraits for children around the world who have faced substantial challenges, such as violence, war, extreme poverty, neglect and loss of parents. Students create these portraits to help these children feel valued and important, to know that many people care about their well-being and to provide a special childhood memory in the future.
Art students from Christopher and Mt. Madonna were assigned photos of children from Afghanistan.
“This project is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for children in Afghanistan to see themselves portrayed as works of art,” according to the district report.
Forty-five students from Mt. Madonna and Christopher High Schools submitted portraits to the project.
“I hope that our participation in the Memory Project serves two purposes: that my students understand that they can impact our world using their artistic talents, and that the children who receive the portraits we have drawn (are shown) that people across the world care about them and their well-being,” Hage said. “We are all a part of something bigger than we can imagine, and it is our job as global citizens to take care of each other.”
Participating artists worldwide created almost 30,000 portraits in the 2018-19 school year. More than 160,000 portraits of children in 47 countries have been distributed since the beginning of the Memory Project.
For information on the Memory Project, visit memoryproject.org/afghanistan
