Bremen Peace Award Brochure: Courageously Crossing Thresholdshttp://www.dieschwelle.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Peace_Award_2009.pdf
The Threshold Foundation publishes a brochure titled „Courageously Crossing Thresholds” on the occasion of every peace prize award ceremony. This brochure presents around 30 nominated projects and organizations, which are exemplary in their work for peace, justice and integrity of creation.
Fauzia Aziz Minallah's work is also featured in the brochure in the following words.
Fauzia Aziz Minallah
Art education is a privilege in Pakistan, available only to a very few children. Fauzia Aziz Minallah wants to democratize art education and makes it accessible to kids from low-income families, so that they too can playfully discover their own creativity.
Teaching Kids Peace Through Art
Amai Park, located in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, is one of the outstanding projects by Fauzia Aziz Minallah. It’s a school-playground designed for the special needs of blind and virtually handicapped children. This playground is special since these kids participated in the process of designing it. They put forth their own ideas without any assistance from their teachers. Many of these children come from battered families, where frustration, violence, money troubles and lack of future prospects are part of everyday-life.
Fauzia Aziz Minallah encourages these children to trust their own abilities and develop self-confidence. In this process, boys and girls learn what it means to be truly appreciated. This is a place, where the kids have equal rights and where a peaceful living is possible – a stark
contrast to their experience within their own families. Minallah, who is also an artist, uses art as a vehicle to prevent violence, which often arises out of frustration and desperation. For her, art is one of the strongest pillars of peace – this becomes obvious while observing her in action.
Minallah heads a small institution called "Funkor Child Art Center Pakistan". At this center, thousands of Pakistani children have learnt how inspiring artwork can be. In Germany, using watercolours and pencils is a matter of course. This is not the case in Pakistan: art education
is only given in private schools which are attended by children from privileged families alone.
Besides her commitment to the organization, Fauzia Aziz Minallah also works as an author and illustrator of children’s books, one of them titled „Amai’s wish". Not only through her art projects, but also through this story, Minallah makes kids understand that a world based on mutual respect is possible.
Proposed by Katrin Becker
More information about Amai Park visit http://www.funkorchildart.com/AmaiPark.php
Amai Park, located in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, is one of the outstanding projects by Fauzia Aziz Minallah. It’s a school-playground designed for the special needs of blind and virtually handicapped children. This playground is special since these kids participated in the process of designing it. They put forth their own ideas without any assistance from their teachers. Many of these children come from battered families, where frustration, violence, money troubles and lack of future prospects are part of everyday-life.
Fauzia Aziz Minallah encourages these children to trust their own abilities and develop self-confidence. In this process, boys and girls learn what it means to be truly appreciated. This is a place, where the kids have equal rights and where a peaceful living is possible – a stark
contrast to their experience within their own families. Minallah, who is also an artist, uses art as a vehicle to prevent violence, which often arises out of frustration and desperation. For her, art is one of the strongest pillars of peace – this becomes obvious while observing her in action.
Minallah heads a small institution called "Funkor Child Art Center Pakistan". At this center, thousands of Pakistani children have learnt how inspiring artwork can be. In Germany, using watercolours and pencils is a matter of course. This is not the case in Pakistan: art education
is only given in private schools which are attended by children from privileged families alone.
Besides her commitment to the organization, Fauzia Aziz Minallah also works as an author and illustrator of children’s books, one of them titled „Amai’s wish". Not only through her art projects, but also through this story, Minallah makes kids understand that a world based on mutual respect is possible.
Proposed by Katrin Becker
More information about Amai Park visit http://www.funkorchildart.com/AmaiPark.php
