Of all the devastations of war, the one that strikes me most forcibly is its effect on children. Many are killed and/or left orphaned and those who survive face a lifetime filled with sorrows and losses that are impossible for us to imagine.
In 1998 I was in Sri Lanka just as the war there was
beginning to escalate and move south. Many children had already been
traumatized and I was proud to hear about The Butterfly Garden, initiated by
Canadian artist Paul Hogan and inspired by The Spiral Garden at The Ontario
Crippled Children's Centre (now known as Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab). It was
conceived as a garden of reconciliation and healing for war-affected
children bringing various ethnic and religious groups together in an oasis of
safety and imagination. The use of creative activity to engage with
people and with life continues to help the children of the area around Batticaloa
to grow up with some sense of a positive future and their place in it.
Not thinking of something is the surest way to remain under its
influence. Two other projects involving art and children are more recent
and have their roots in countries with ongoing violence and killing... Syria
and Gaza. Their approach is to encourage children to draw their surroundings,
capturing the horrors witnessed, helping them attempt to cope with their
day-to-day situations. While our
children see bicycles, dolls and roller blades around them, children in war
zones see bombs exploding, guns and torture.
Looking out at Passamaquoddy Bay on a sunny morning in early August, I’m thinking about how life forces us to deal with changes outside our control. What war-affected children must accept and integrate into their lives gives me a pretty humble perspective on my own.
