The Joy of Sharing Arts to the Children

“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”

― Erma Bombeck

I have been working for three years and I was wondering what is mypurpose, on what can I do for the community I live on.
Then I started to list down all the things I wanted to achieve (before I die) in my bucket list. One of the lists is to conduct an art workshop for the street children around Manila, and the rest is history.

Creative Street is born after the fulfillment of that one bucket list. That faithful afternoon of May 19, 2018, the youth that accompanied me wanted to do more like this and that encouraged me to continue the workshops until now. (We are turning one year)

Seeing the potential in every children is like a glimpse of a bright future for us. As our national hero , Dr. Jose Rizal said "Kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan", (Youth is the hope of the nation), we want to reach more and more children to make an impact on their lives and to make them realize that being a child of an underprivilege family, or what the common citizen called "urban poor", or even children with special abilities, can have a role in the future, big or small. That in the present, they are capable of creating things and making people like us smile by the things they do.

Art is also a form of theraphy. In fact, it is widely used for rehabilitation, recovery and some kind of meditation. Coloring or painting colors on blank canvas can sooth disturbances in mind and calm a person. It is visible in many of our previous workshops. The guardians and some of our partners' facilitators told us that the children behaves different when they are painting and making crafts, they are more tranquil and are more focused on what they do. And every after a child finished his/her artwork, we can see that he is so happy and proud of what he/she did.

It also teaches the kids to be ready in academic learning, for drawing straight lines from left to right prepare their mind to read properly, and for drawing lines and circles prepare their hands to write letters.

The most important thing I learned in this kind of workshop is that a child can unhide his/her creative potentials. We have encountered many parents claimed that they did not know that their children can paint or draw until the workshop. And we are very happy to know that. This is a great opportunity especially for those who cannot afford to have a crayon, because by the time we reached him/her, he/she can then wonder and be amazed on his/her own talent. I mean, the opportunity to learn should not be limited but because of the their family or community situation, some of the ways to explore their talent is obstructed. So here we are, breaking every boundaries for the children, and make them grow and glow.

We also wanted them to know that creativity is not limited by colors and conventional art materials. Art can be created using leaves, twigs, old cups and paper bags and many more. They just have to unleash their imagination and let it fly.

I am hoping that @creativestreet will continue to grow and help more children here in the Philippines