On Tuesday 13 April, Qendra Sociale Murialdo had the pleasure of welcoming a Peacepainting workshop for children in the Mbrostar Roma community.
The workshop was run by the current Italian Civil Service volunteers and the Murialdo’s social worker. The location chosen for the workshop was a big green area in the outskirt of the village. Every Tuesday, Murialdo personnel organizes recreational activities for the children of the Mbrostar community. This weekly appointment represents a unique moment for the children who always welcome the Tuesday’s activity with great enthusiasm.
The Peacepainting workshop was a moment of gathering and happiness for the children of Mbrostar. They all showed a great sense of independence in the way they chose the colours for their paintings and the subjects they decided to shape. The children committed to this activity from the very beginning when they discussed what peace means for them. At the end of the activity, they told the rest of the group what title they decided to give to their work.
The underlying messages that came through this workshop were the importance of listening and being listened to and the fact that everybody has a message that is worth to share. As always at the end of each Peacepainting workshop, the children were asked if they wanted to keep their painting for themselves or donate it to let it travel around the world through exhibitions. Some of them got extremely excited about the possibility to ship their painting abroad and decided to donate theirs to Peacepainting. They felt incredibly proud by the fact that they will be representing Albania in the forthcoming Peacepainting exhibitions and that their paintings will be seen by a broad audience.
