From late September to early November, I would volunteer at the children’s section of a refugee home near the school. Being a passionate art student, I wanted to inspire a few children to be more creative and teach them a few art skills. I would go there once a week for 1.5 hours and had a supervisor to help that worked there. There were lots of challenges at first, for example language barriers as not all the children there spoke English. Hence, I organized a few friends of mine to come over and help translate. My project started off as mainly art based but evolved to just spending time with the children as I noticed they sometimes just wanted someone who will pay attention to them and play games with them.
As there were not many volunteers in the beginning, this was obviously a problem. In addition, whenever they created a piece they were proud of, we would stick it on the walls and this gave them a sense of achievement. By the end of the project the walls were filled with their sketches and drawings. My project overall was a challenging but wonderful experience, and I was happy to spend time with the children there even if it was just for a bit.
Mercy Kimena, IB 13, 2017
