ISLAMABAD: Street children participated in an art workshop titled ‘Understanding Our Shared Humanity through Art’ that was organised to bring together students from different ethnicities and cultures.

The initiative sought to highlight how despite differences, humans are connected in strange ways.

The organiser, Ibrahim Khan was present throughout the workshop and provided art supplies to children.

“This is an ongoing initiative that has already worked with several schools in underprivileged areas. The idea was to work with schools and children in underprivileged areas of minority communities and other urban slums. Among participating schools was the Mehnaz Fatima Montessori and Inclusive School up in the northern areas of Pakistan and specialised in looking after children with special needs. The other school is Master Ayub’s Park School where students were mostly from different religious minorities. The venture had also held art workshops at the Pehli Kiran School and Mashal School. Both of these schools were based in the urban slum areas of Islamabad and a majority of their students were street children and children of displaced and migrant families,” he said.

Understanding Our Shared Humanity Through Art was founded in 2021 amid upheavals and tragedies due to spread of Covid-19. Khan said he realised that the thought of uniting people through recreational activities was what drove him to develop a venture that celebrated shared experiences.

Experiences of participating children and volunteers had been exhilarating which is why, Mr Khan said, he decided to expand the venture to schools both within Pakistan and in other countries.

He said he was already in contact with charity schools in South Africa and community schools in the United Kingdom in order to take the venture forward and contribute towards creating greater understanding and tolerance among children within Pakistan and throughout the world, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2021