Art workshop at Tata Memorial Centre
We conducted an art workshop today (February 4) for children undergoing treatment for cancer at Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. February 4 is observed as World Cancer Day. It was an overwhelming experience for us. About 25 children from different parts of the country who are currently undergoing treatment for cancer participated in the workshop. The children were from diverse geographies and hailed from states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Workshop Contents
Preview
We showed them several medal winning paintings by children across India from earlier Khula Aasmaan contests. The children were excited to see such a wide variety of beautiful paintings.
Painting Session
After the preview session, we distributed art material to the children. They were keen and eager to paint. It was nice to see that the children painted diverse subjects. In fact, some were inspired enough to paint 2 or 3 paintings as well. Their parents were watching all this from the sidelines. One of the mothers wanted to join and paint herself. We were only too happy to accept her request.
Road ahead
We did meet several parents. We urged them to encourage their children to draw and paint on a regular basis. We suggested to them that they should connect with Khula Aasmaan on an ongoing basis so that their children would benefit and get inspired. We impressed upon them that this was not a one off event but the beginning of a long term initiative. In this initiative, we will work with children with severe medical conditions such as cancer.
Art Therapy
Khula Aasmaan provides an avenue and a platform for children for their creative expression. In this case, apart from encouraging the children to express themselves, these art workshops and painting sessions will also have a significant therapeutic value. We believe that staying connected with art and engaging in creative expression on a regular basis will enable the children to tackle the stress and pain that they have to undergo as a result of their medical condition.
Special Thanks
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai for providing this opportunity to Khula Aasmaan. Specifically I would like to mention the support and encouragement we received from Dr. Rajendra Badwe, Dr. Shridhar Banavali, Shalini Jatia and Devika Pandhere. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts and detailed planning for this workshop done by Chitra Vaidya, who is an artist and art educator apart from being a core team member of Khula Aasmaan.
World Cancer Day
It turned out that the first workshop for the children undergoing cancer treatment was conducted by Khula Aasmaan on February 4, which is observed as World Cancer Day. We salute the grit and fight of all those who undergo the treatment for cancer. We also salute the efforts put in by the community of doctors, health workers, researchers and providers of treatment for cancer. All of them have been helping the humanity to educate, create awareness and offer support and cure to the patients.
World Cancer Day is an initiative of Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). All logos are a property of UICC.
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