For Children, Brick-Painting Funds Hope
Tiny paintings are providing art therapy, and funding, for some of Phnom Penh's poorest. (23 June 2008)
On a small 1 centimeter by 2centimeter brick, Chea Veav painted a picture of himself and his mother walkingon a small road surrounded by green rice fields and a mountain. For the10-year-old boy, the painting was an unrealized fantasy, an imaginary trip witha mother who abandoned him two years ago, following the death of his father. Chea Veav now lives with hisgrandmother in a Phnom Penhslum, dependant on the collection of morning glory from the riverbank forsurvival. But Chea Veav's art and thepainted bricks of other children are helping raise money and awareness and actingas therapy for the children, helping them overcome traumas of the past andimagine a better future. "I feel hurt that I can'tlive with my mother, but drawing pictures makes me happy," a skinny CheaVeav said, in tears. About 70 more children havejoined in the brick painting, all of them between the ages of 8 and 20, andmost of them orphans that live in the capital's poorest communities. Providedsponsorship by Mith Samlan, or Friends, organization, the children spend threehours each morning drawing pictures on their bricks. Individual sponsors can thenpay to "purchase" the bricks, though these are in fact kept by thechildren. More than 1,000 bricks decorated with schools, flowers, forests, ricefields and cityscapes were used to build a wall at Friends' Phnom Penh center. Proceeds have gone towardpayments for the center. "On a brick, children candraw what happened to them in the past, what they dream in the future, andprovide children with creative ideas," said Sem Ratana, culturalprogrammer for Friends. Chea Veav said his brick drawingwas a representation of a future hope. "I draw people going tothe mountain, representing my mom and I visiting Tamao mountain," he said."If my mom comes back, I can go to the mountain."