Its not every day you get asked to help 90 Orphans paint their own SoulScapes.

About six weeks ago, I got a call from a good friend of mine (Richard Garnett), who asked me to do precisely this.

I jumped at the chance. It had been a long time since I had set foot in Africa, and I was really looking forward to the challenges that I would face holding an oil painting workshop out there. I had no idea just how rewarding the experience would be.

As the project unfolded, it became clear that what was going to happen was that the children were going to paint their artwork, and then the paintings would be sold/auctioned at a London gallery to raise money for the project.

Watch this space for details!

The project is Shitima School in Kabwe, Zambia. It has grown from a street children project, to a full blown school in space of five years. Now there are classrooms, boys dormitories, a dining hall, an ablution block and full time teaching staff. There is healthcare provision, and some of the first children are now looking forward to moving onto university.

The entire project is mainly due to Jullianne Ugle’s admirable tenacity and creative abilities in seeing so many aspects of this through. She has faced serious adversities as the project has developed, and seen the school grow steadily.

On arriving, it was evident that there were a lot more than 90 orphans (or double orphaned) children that attended the school. More like 164! The school is growing all the time, and the heartbreaking thing is that children are turned away every week who desperately want to attend. As we stepped off the school bus, flags were waved and songs were sung to welcome us. I couldn’t believe it. There were so many happy smiling faces. And when you see the nearby Shanty Town of Makalulu which was the previous home of the children, its hard to accept just what a transforming place Shitima school is.

Makalulu is a heart breaking place to visit. Children with distended belly’s, covered in dust and dirt. Women looking after upto 6 children at a time, with no outside help. I don’t really know where to start with just how soul destroying it must be to live like this.

So, transformational is exactly what Shitima School is. It provides, food, healthcare, safety, education, and a warm hug! Children being to dream of the possibilities for their future, instead of worrying about how they are going to survive.

Me and my wife, Clare had spent two days unpicking the staples from 90 canvasses. I packed the canvasses into a rucksack along with art materials, (kindly supplied with a discount from www.artdiscount.co.uk)

The first day was, what can only be called, a chaotic, enthusiastic whirlwind of creativity. Knowing that the paints would need 3 days to dry, I had to move quickly if I was going to be able to bring them back to the UK in a rucksack!

I attempted to take 15 children through the first step of the SoulScape process, which is to visualise a time that made them most happy. This included scoring a goal in football, to when they joined Shitima School, to learning something new in class. We then took them inside to the already very noisy dining room (where t-shirt painting was going on) and teach the oil painting techniques.

Some children got straight into it, and others were too worried about making a mistake. It became quickly apparent that another style of facilitation would have to be used to make the most of this opportunity.

Also, many of these children have had such a deeply painful past (many had been abused, beaten as well having been orphaned and had life threatening health care problems) that engaging in an act of creativity of this kind, of this power, can be way, way too overwhelming.

To be honest. I got worried. I wondered if I was going to be a waste of time and resources. What could I do to make the most of this opportunity for the children?

After chatting with a few of the people who were part of the project, I decided to change tack. The next day, we found a quiet classroom, and set it up for four children at time. This was I was able to focus all of my attention, praise and encouragement on a smaller number to get the creative juices flowing!

Also, I changed the question, quite simply to: “What do you want to be when you leave Shitima (nearly all of them knew!) Now, what colour makes you happy? Now, just paint, as long as it makes you happy!”

Any acts of creativity that showed courage and movement and inspiration were hugely encouraged; thicker paint, painting with fingers… And when I saw little smiles creeping onto little faces, I knew that the job had been done! A huge rush of joy rose up inside me and I couldn’t stop smiling! One little girl in particular had such wide eyes as she painted, that every movement of the spoon (yes spoon! One has to improvise!) seemed like she was waving a magic creative wand of energy.

The teachers got the idea quickly and started praising the children. Also, each child would have one of Juliannes or Richard Garnetts children to sit with them and encourage them to work the canvases in different ways so that they would know what if felt like to create something with feeling, and without worrying.

After day two, 40 pieces had been painted (10 classes back to back!). By day three, the system worked itself, the teachers instructed, the children demonstrated and praised. I had almost worked myself out of a job I was [pooped but happy! 84 incredible canvasses had been painted, some had been reworked from the previous day to make sure as many children as possible had a go.

The results are dramatic! Bold, bright colours. Each piece symbolising the profound inner beauty and potential of each of these children.

Its an incredible thought to me, that on the other side of the planet, near a little village in Zambia, there is so much creativity. So much brightness and hope.

Some of these images will be available to view online soon.

I will keep you posted on the next developments for the Art Exhibition. If you would like to know any more about the project, and ways in which to support it, then drop me an email.