Centre for Arts-Based Methodologies and Wellbeing facilitated an event with children at Mehrdar Arts and Production. We invited 30 kids from around Lyari for an exciting “Make your Monster Friend” art activity.
The activity was an exploration of the kind of fears that children have and how learning to face them. We started with breathing exercises and then had a conversation about fears. The fantastical world of a child can only fathom fears of the paranormal, reptiles and insects. In this moment, Beenish and I (Luluwa) reflected on how much more we fear as we grow up.
There are fears of unacceptance, patriarchy, rejection, unemployment, loss of self, all of the existential questions that do not touch a child. One can say, a child is braver than an adult!
We shared our drawings and stories with everyone. Even some staff members ended up finding their inner child too and participated in the activity to their fears in an attempt to conquer them. At the end we had a collection of crazy monsters, some random drawings and a group of very happy kids!