May 10, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 9: Can you believe that six- and eight-year-old visually impaired children could express their creativity and make drawings of trees, humans and objects of nature like the ones who can see everything.

In a day of art activities especially made for children with sight loss, an exhibition of fascinating tactile drawings by visually impaired children was arranged on Wednesday, challenging the notion that sight was essential for creating and enjoying art.

Over 50 children participated and made tactile drawings, a special activity and introduced for the first time by Funkor Child Art at the Al Maktoom National Education Centre for the Visually Impaired Children.

As the activities began, children had the opportunity to go outside in the lawns to touch plants and eagerly held out their small hands to hold flowers and toys and other objects to give them a feel of what they could draw.

Holding ballpoint pens in their hands, they drew lines and circles that took the shapes of houses, faces and flowers. etc., on special plastic sheets placed on silicon sheets that made the lines protrude so that they could touch and feel the raised surfaces.

Tiny hands and little fingers ran all over dough to give it form and make cartoon faces, beautiful flowers and trees.

The children expressed their personal creativity and used their artistic talents to make objects out of clay, and to help them accomplish their tasks, respected ceramist Sherzade Alam joined them to create small baskets and spoons, etc.

Fauzia Minallah, who explained how the children had come with the impressions, said she was amazed at what had emerged out of the effort of allowing children to experience art.

Rubina Anjum, principal of the Al Maktoom centre, said this was the first time such art activities were held at the school.