CHILDREN NEED SOMETHING TO LOOK AT

Bright and colourful pictures on the walls in My Sisters day care centres create a good environment for the children's games and get their imagination started.

By Ane Haahr Andersen, volunteer in My Sisters 2007

When I was a child, I had Disney-wallpaper in my room. Every night I would lie in my bed and look at Donald Duck doing a lot of funny things with all his happy friends, making my thoughts wander about. When I was playing in my room, they were playing with me and when you entered the room, they were the first to meet your eyes.

In Ethiopia, it is different. Most children only get to see clay-walls in small dark sheds, both when playing, sleeping and eating. There is not much for them to look at. Most probably, they don't even know Donald Duck and his friends.

Funny animals and good stories
So in My Sisters three day care centres, we wanted to give the children something to look at, and within the last year the play rooms in all three places have been painted. I have been involved in the painting in two of the places. We wanted to paint something beautiful and funny, something to set the children's imagination going and to create a good environment for the children to be and to play in.

The first place, we made the theme Noah's Ark. You can make a lot of funny details with animals on their way somewhere, everybody is welcome in the Ark with Noah, and nobody walks alone.

The second place we depicted the Garden of Eden, where everything is good, where the lamb plays around the lion, the crocodile rests at the feet of the flamingos, and all are well, happy and good friends. Motives that make you in a good mood and that you can expand stories on yourself.

The creative process
Which way do the stripes of the zebra go? Where are the ears on a rhinoceros? And how do you make Adam and Eve in the right proportions?, we discussed, meanwhile trying to find the best kind of paint, mix the right amount and make the shades go well together.

One of the day care centres is on the same ground as My Sisters' offices, so during the process we frequently had curious staff members visiting, taking a look around the room, and it was encouraging to see their faces brighten up as they saw the pictures slowly taking form. "Nice", "beautiful", "cool" and "good job", were some of the Amharic vocabulary, we got well familiar with in the short cosy chats in English-Amharic-sign language, we had with them while painting.

We saw the staff members talk to each other and laugh about the elephant playing in the water, the cat lying under the cow, drinking a bit of milk dripping from the udder, and the monkey skip jumping in the snake with the zebra and the rhinoceros.

The children embrace the animals
In all this, the best thing was to see the children, who had for a while been banished from playing in the sleeping room, stop, as they entered the room and saw the walls and all the things to look at. Their faces revealed how the animals on the walls had already wandered into their heads to continue their games together with them.

(See more pictures from the painting projects in the Picture Gallery under "Projects")