‘Be light’: Blind children use art to promote mental awareness
The Government School for the Blind in Kottayam is spreading awareness about mental health with gorgeous artwork made by the children. This project was initiated by Ananthu Vasudev, who is the head coordinator. He, along with Teena Kondody, one of the project coordinators, have been associated with the school since 2012.
In 2016, they thought of creating paintings with these children, and Ananthu was uncertain about how it would go. Teena Kondody, a volunteer and an artist, who worked along with Ananthu, supported the idea and said, “we can start doing it, and see what happens”.
Must-read related stories:
'Good touch, bad touch': How sex-abuse education through cartoons is helping kids
'Inspiring': 'Saand Ki Aankh' producer donates her breastmilk to save newborns
'Age no bar for self-defence': Woman on a mission to teach 2 million women by 2022
Meet Ajanta Mahapatra, a woman who travelled 68 countries in colourful saris
“The only thing I knew in life is to create art and when I was asked for something for these children, art was the first thing that came into my mind - I said let’s do painting, without having thought of how those children will go about it. Yet, my confidence from inside asked me to go for it,” says Teena.
“The idea is not to showcase them, but to break out from their fears and insecurities and make them independent. This initiative is to make them realise that it's not about being disabled and make them know that they are just like every other human, created beautifully with needs.”
Surprisingly, the idea turned out exciting, and the message got disseminated through word-of-mouth. When asked about how these blind children used to identify colours, Teena swiftly replied, “we told them when we picked any color by linking to a certain imagination, say, this is the color of the sky or an ocean, or leaves, etc. Even if they find difficulty in discerning the colors, they certainly know about the existence in sundry ways”.
By doing so, helped the blind children to communicate explicitly without being afraid or timid of anything. The whole project was implemented with the helping hands of Ananthu’s fellow volunteers, namely, Teena Kondody, Noby Antony, Robin Skaria, Rameez Rasheed, Sreeja Mukundan, Timothy, Ajesh Nair, etc.
Theme is hope
Every month they come up with a handful of tasks to bring a positive change in their mental health. As 2020 was the year that tested our patience in various possible ways, it showed them certain things that most of us forget to see in our bustling life, i.e. the importance of mental health.
The latest calendars centralize on the subject of hope and promote mental health awareness using the artworks made by children.
“In 2019, they made over 750 calendars last year, and this year, 300 copies were booked so far. To make these calendars, they have taken 12 artworks of 12 children, adding one illustration for each month. Thanks to all those people who have been kind to be a part of this project”, expressed Teena and Ananthu.
In 2020, the calendar has been made in association with the 'Be light, Be a light' campaign - a mental health awareness initiative by adding tasks that can support our mental health and happiness every week. They also added, “we are hoping that, when these amazing calendars reach the hands of several people, it truly would make a happy impact on the ones using them”.
Make A Wish, Fundraising, Collaborations
All the fundraising proceeds aided the needs of the children and made them live their life on their own. As it’s never a one man’s journey to make this happen, volunteers from colleges came in to help these lovely children out in manifold ways they could, which made it into a successful initiative overall. Many organizations and communities came forward to help and support them in their journey.
Multiple NGOs and groups were part of the initiatives, namely, Manass, The Peace Movement, Bullet Cavaliers Riders Club, ANTS Kochi, etc. “While starting working with the students, they wanted to make them aware that they are not specially challenged, but differently-abled - they can live a life like others. We wanted to convey to the public too that they do not need sympathy, but need a bit of attention and support so that they can live a life of their own” avowed Ananthu.
Moving ahead, the project was supported by the School PTA. Earlier, they were working with the school as part of their NGO, The Peace Movement. Later, the volunteers, parents of students, teachers, well-wishers, and alumni formed a School Support Group to conduct such activities for the school and named it as “Make A Wish” project.
They have been doing this campaign to fulfill at least one of their wishes. “For instance, one of them wished to watch a movie. Yes, the experience changed us all. It was one of the beautiful encounters I ever had” claimed Teena.
With the support of fundraisers, the painting initiative raised enough funds for the children that aided in meeting their needs and expenses. Those paintings were open for sale and anyone can buy them for the amount they wish (the minimum amount is Rs 100 including shipping).
The first two paintings were booked for Rs. 6,000/- and Rs. 2,500/- respectively. They did the paintings, sold them 3 times back to back, and raised almost 1.5 lakhs. After meeting the expenses, about 1.25 lakhs were left.
“Laxmipriya; a student among them, lost her father and the school joined hands with NGOs to build a house for her. Those 1.25 lakhs were donated by the students towards the house construction fund - as their contribution for their friend” quoted Ananthu, the main coordinator of the initiative.
Just like that, every month, they display the artwork of the blind children by collaborating with one beautiful artist in and around the world who are kind enough to help every month for free.
Different artists & designers supported by designing the calendar layout named Aravind, Amala, Ajesh, Prem Krishna, Angela, Bharat, etc. This year, they have some more new artists such as the Doodle Muni (Arosh), Midhun Jose, Neha, Rithika, Indulekha, Anu Menon, Sam, etc.
Instances and Moments
To date, the journey has given some memorable moments with children that were shared by Ananthu. He also shared some of the special instances of children.
Case-in-point, Jobin (completely blind), who was a student in 2016-17 participated in the initial painting events. His words, “I was gifted with a painting kit after winning an elocution competition and I kept it as it is, as I couldn't use it. And I try to imagine how a blue sky will look like. Now, I can use the painting kit too”.
A parent said after watching the movie in the theater, "I used to watch all the movies in the theater. But when my baby was born and realized he is blind too, I stopped going to theaters and never thought of taking him too. He enjoyed hearing the dialogues and sound effects. I will definitely go to theaters again with my son".
Down the line
When asked about the future plans, they said, “there are certainly many things that we are planning on to work with the school. So far, we were blessed to do greeting cards, paintings, ceramic plate paintings, tote bag potato prints, and many more such activities with students of Govt School for Blind, Olassa.
