Art therapy: Using art to communicate with children

Durre Sameen Hashmi helps students of Jamshed Government School express themselves on paper

KARACHI: With a degree in mental health, Durre Sameen Hashmi is here to make a difference. After working at several recovery houses in the city, she is now working primarily with children through a campaign she calls, Artful Envision.

"It is an innate human quality to create," she said while talking to The Express Tribune. "Everything around us has been created. It is human nature to draw on experience and bring something new to different things."

On Thursday, Hashmi was participating in an interesting project along with Sustainable Initiatives, an NGO. They were working with the idea of using instilling positive psychology and emotions in areas of the city where children are exposed to violence.

Sitting on the floor of a classroom at Jamshed Government School, she interacted with eighth grade students and asked them questions they had not been asked before.

She wanted to know how a particular colour on the chart made them feel like - what it reminded them of.

Most girls told her that the first thing that popped into their heads was food. According to Hashmi, this was an indication that the girls had only been exposed to a domestic life outside school.

"With age, creativity becomes very subdued," said Hashmi as she discussed how hesitant secondary school students were to talking as opposed to primary school students. Some girls drew the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar with bullets in the air in one activity. In another, the children were given a blank paper to fill with anything they wanted. She also gave the students a blank sheet of paper to make them explore - start by scribbling and just play around with colour.

"Communication is everything," said Hashmi "Making children explore rather than teaching them is the key. We are giving them a platform to be free. Doing something tangible like art allows you to come to a conclusion." said Hashmi while explaining how these activities were different from a conventional art class.

Sualeha Shekhani from Sustainable Initiatives, an NGO which works on urban sustainability issues said that these activities were good as they helped boost the students' self-esteem and had a positive effect on society.