Our friends George and Robin have been involved
for many years with Sueñitos a project located in an
impoverished area of Buenos Aires called Ciudad Oculta. Sueñitos' approach to helping end the cycle of
poverty is to work with the children from birth while at the same time helping
the parents improve their life skills. So
while the parents learn to read and write upstairs Sueñitos provides day care
and teaches early childhood skills downstairs.
Sueñitos was just completing the second floor addition when George asked Janet and I if we would be interested in working with the staff to design a mural
for the front of the building. Hey, we've never done a mural before but why not, it should be fun.
Preliminary Designs
The staff at Sueñitos wanted the mural to be simple, bright and reflecting who they are to the community. Most importantly they wanted it to be a collaborative experience, so that the teachers and families could become involved and ‘own’ their mural.
Great, after a couple of meetings they came up with a simple, low cost design and a plan for action. Janet and I would paint Sueñitos' name and an
image of the sun so that the teachers and families could complete the design.
Success!!! Well almost…. Our part of the work has been done for a week now and it is still waiting for the teachers to make the sun rays with their hand prints and to paint the lush intertwining green garden so the kids and parents can add the flowers with their hand-prints.
Time moves at a different pace here in South America and we’re hoping someday we can add another photo to this post but for now you’ll just have to image how beautiful it will look.
