TOKYO — Hector Sierra, a 37-year-old Colombian filmmaker, travels around the world to meet children in areas that have experienced conflict or trauma to try to lift their spirits with pictures and paper cranes.
Sierra, founder of Artists Without Borders, a Tokyo-based nongovernmental organization, visited about 10 schools in New York last winter in the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks and some 10 schools and orphanages in Kabul, Jalalabad and Bamiyan in Afghanistan in May this year to hold therapeutic art workshops.
"I think the kids are very happy to receive some attention, to have the chance to express themselves and to play...I saw children affected by war change from being depressed children to happy children. Everyday, little by little, they would react in a more normal, positive way."
The visits have resulted in a picture book called "Anohi no koto o kakimashita" (What we drew about that day). It contains 32 pictures drawn by children in the Manhattan district of New York and in Afghanistan. Published by Kodansha Ltd., the book went on sale Friday.
An exhibition of original drawings in honor of publication of the book will be held until Sept 16 in Tokyo's Ginza district.
Sierra, founder of Artists Without Borders, a Tokyo-based nongovernmental organization, visited about 10 schools in New York last winter in the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks and some 10 schools and orphanages in Kabul, Jalalabad and Bamiyan in Afghanistan in May this year to hold therapeutic art workshops.
"I think the kids are very happy to receive some attention, to have the chance to express themselves and to play...I saw children affected by war change from being depressed children to happy children. Everyday, little by little, they would react in a more normal, positive way."
The visits have resulted in a picture book called "Anohi no koto o kakimashita" (What we drew about that day). It contains 32 pictures drawn by children in the Manhattan district of New York and in Afghanistan. Published by Kodansha Ltd., the book went on sale Friday.
An exhibition of original drawings in honor of publication of the book will be held until Sept 16 in Tokyo's Ginza district.