Inspire Rohingya Refugees through Art

Artolution co-directors Max Frieder and Joel Bergner arrived in mid-May to develop the Artolution Rohingya Program, following up on the work that Max did several months ago when he was first in the country. The program goals were to engage Rohingya children in through community-based public art projects, including murals and arts-based games and activities. These activities were to be infused with elements of psychosocial support, social/ emotional learning, educational and creative activities. Also, co-founders and co-directors Max and Joel put a focus on the 8 Rohingya teaching artists, who received on-the-job training over the course of the program in order to build their capacity to run their own programs on an ongoing basis.

Rifa (female artist, 19) shared: Rifa: “In the previous time I couldn’t draw. Now I can draw and I learned many things, and in the future I want to draw the important issues. In the future is important to be artists. Since one day if we can’t come here we would feel bad. For the community, we feel bad. We feel bad just to stay in the house. All the kids are happy to paint with the artists and they want to be painters like them.”

Themes that have emerged from the children’s ideas through discussion include access to education, fears that surround access to food and clean water, dreams and memories of their home country, reminders of their passage, rather escape, to Bangladesh, shared traumatic experiences, and always, hope. Rohingya children have found structure and routine in the workshops, exchanged laughter and joy while getting to know one another, and collaborated through artistic expression to share their stories, their trauma, and their hopes and dreams for the future. The resulting murals remind the residents of the camps and the world that they exist and that they are resilient despite their displacement.