The courtyard transformed into a night market with 19 exhibitions displaying their products and hundreds of discerning buyers.[break]
The Siddhartha Art Gallery was decorated with art from the children of Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) run by this year’s CNN Hero Nominee Pushpa Basnet. ECDC is an organization that gives shelter to children born to prisoners.
The walls of the Galley housed paintings of flowerpots, pictures of old women with sad eyes and hand-painted postcards, all done by the children at ECDC.
Mentored by Paul Banham, an artist based in the UK, for two and a half months, the nine children show exquisite skills in their work and painted the room with their childhood imagination.
Although nine children exhibited their work, only six were present that evening, as the others had to go back and resume their lives in prison.
The works displayed were created by Biraj Gurung, 14; Roshan Gurung, 14; Tej Karan Yadav, 13; Manju Balkothi, 17; Laxmi Tamang, 14; Heena Khan, 16; Sabita Lama, 13; Anish KC, 11; and Soni Sherpa, 13.
“I came to Nepal looking for a spiritual retreat and I found it working with these children because they are an inspiration in themselves,” said Paul, smiling.
“We started out very simple, using thick brushes but I’m amazed at the outcome. Working with the kids has been a spiritual journey for me and I had an amazing time working with them. They have done me very proud,” he added.
The children’s artworks are up for sale and any the money raised from the sale goes into an education fund for the artists. Change Fusion Nepal has been helping ECDC by organizing projects like these to help it stay self-sustained and not depend on funding from outside sources.
“Young children have difficulty expressing themselves in words because it’s very limited to them,” said Pushpa, adding, “Art is the ideal form of expression for these young children because of its use of shapes and colors; and right now, I’m very proud of my kids.”
There are more happenings under the open sky outside as the night market progresses. There are women-empowerment organizations, fashion students, and bookstores displaying their products for eager buyers.
There are 19 different organizations, like Quixote’s Cove, Aastha, the old-age center Ekadeshma, and Children and Youth First dealing with customers.
The night market is scheduled to happen every fortnight with new social entrepreneurship organizations.
“We want to provide a platform for these small organizations,” said Anupama Shakya, Programs Co-coordinator at Change Fusion Nepal.
“There organizations have really nice products that are locally made and are created from Nepali fibers but they don’t get the market to sell them. So we wish to help them find the market and not let these organizations die out,” she added.
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