wfn.org | Cambodian Refugee Inspires Art Auction for Kenyan School Children

[Jan Dragin <jdragin@gis.net>]

Western Mass. Art Auction to Benefit Kenyan School Children Is Inspired
By Young Cambodian Refugee Artist

20+ Regional Artists Donate Works to Support Church World Service's African
School Safe Zones Program

Dalton's Churches Raising Funds for Pilot Kenyan Schools' Security Needs

DALTON, MA ­ Wed Aug 10 ­ An upcoming art auction in Western
Massachusetts
to benefit schools and school children in Kenya is the inspiration of an
unexpected source: When Cambodian refugee Han Hang, 24, of Dalton,
Massachusetts, heard about humanitarian agency Church World Service¹s (CWS)
School Safe Zones program, the budding artist was moved to contribute four
of his original paintings to the initiative. His contribution created a
community ripple effect.

Hang¹s artwork focuses on portraying children of poverty. His compassion
and
generosity, informed by some of his own life experiences, has inspired a
group of Dalton-area churches to hold a regional Art Show and Auction to
benefit Church World Service¹s School Safe Zones pilot program in Kenya.

Scheduled Saturday August 13, the auction has attracted contributions of
original works from a variety of known artists in the area.

Proceeds from the auction will help the community-wide ecumenical drive to
reach or exceed its goal for funds that are sufficient to renovate and build
security for one of CWS¹ pilot schools in Kenya that serves over 700
students.

WHAT:

Art Show and Auction
to benefit
The Africa School Safe Zones Program of Church World Service

WHERE & WHEN:

Saturday August 13
St. Agnes School
489 Main Street, Dalton, Massachusetts

Art Show: 10:00 AM ­ 3:00 PM
Free and open to the public

Preview: 7:00 PM
Auction: 7:30 PM
Donation $5  - For Hors d¹oeuvres and beverages

WHO:

The art show and auction are hosted by Dalton area churches, in cooperation
with the global humanitarian agency Church World Service.

The more than 20 artists who are contributing artwork for the auction
include:
o Han Hang ­ Berkshire Community College art student
o Lucy MacGillis­ a Berkshires native who now lives and paints in Italy;
who
has exhibited in Philadelphia, Lenox, Massachusetts, Rome and Doglio, Italy;
and whose work is represented in private collections in Italy, Germany,
Canada and the U.S.
o Kathleen Nolan ­ whose works include oil, watercolor, acrylic, gouache,
and o collage
o Kathryn Stocking-Koza­ a high school art teacher whose contributed
painting reflects her own travels in Africa
o Avery Spencer­ a Berkshires artist who has exhibited at the Boston Museum
of Fine Arts, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, DeCordova Museum and the
Berkshire Museum
o Leo Mazzeo­ a member of the Kent Art Association, Sheffield Art League
and
Columbia County Council on the Arts who has exhibited in a wide variety of
shows in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York
o Christine Kwasny ­ a Berkshires art teacher who has exhibited widely in
the region

According to Donna M. Bishop, Art Show & Auction Committee, First
Congregational Church of Dalton, the auction extended its deadline for
accepting contributions from regional artists of artwork in all media.
"We¹ve gotten a tremendous response from area artists," she says,
"including
a number of student artists who would ordinarily not get to show their work
to the public."

BACKGROUND:

The School Safe Zones Program:

Kenya has been selected as pilot country for Church World Service¹s School
Safe Zones effort, part of the agency¹s broader Africa Initiative. Free
primary education was introduced two years ago in Kenya but is facing
challenges, including insecurity, classroom congestion, lack of learning
materials and desks, low teacher motivation and drug abuse.
The government of Kenya, the global humanitarian agency Church World Service
and a national task force of Kenyan educators, parents, religious leaders
and other public and private sector stakeholders have been working together
for nearly two years to create sustainable solutions for those problems.
First seed grants were distributed to ten pilot schools this spring.
For designated pilot schools, first-level implementation is focusing on
primary needs such as fencing and perimeter walls to provide safety,
classroom rehabilitation and teaching aids, sanitation facilities and water
storage, and advocacy for girls to attend school.
"By the end of 2015, we want all schools in Kenya to have attained School
Safe Zone status," says lay African President of the World Council of
Churches Dr. Agnes Abuom and Chair of the School Safe Zones National Task
Force.

Artist Han Hang:

First Congregational Church¹s Rev. Robert Kyte, a mentor of Hang¹s, says
"Han has been in this country for 19 years. His mother died when he was ten.
For Han and his infant brother, sister and father, dealing with the loss and
adjusting to a new country were difficult.

It was Kyte¹s church that sponsored the Hang family¹s resettlement in
Dalton. "Han grew up here with only the guidance of his father and a caring
church community," says Kyte.

Hang says the loss of his mother devastated him and his father was deeply
depressed. "Mom was always the one who pushed me," says Hang.  "If I fell
off my bike, she pushed me to the limit.

"I really didn¹t care much about anything after she died. My grades started
to slip. I started to go down. My teenage years were pretty wild. At the age
of 12, I started getting into trouble, not even caring. I also didn¹t have
money like other kids had, and they criticize you. I went to the streets,"
Han said, "to a different crowd."

Now an art student at Berkshire Community College, Hang¹s inspiration to
pursue art came in the school of hard knocks: He went to jail when he was
18.

"It was like a juvenile detention center for old people," says Hang. "They
caged you like an animal except for certain recreation hours. While I was
there, I watched this one guy who was about 56 years old. I decided that
when I got out, I didn¹t want to be like him­ in and out of jail at age
50
and my kids in jail with me. Most of the people in jail with me," he says,
"were like 12 year olds in a 30-year old body."

Hang says when he came back to his community, he wanted to start college but
wasn¹t sure what he wanted to do. "I thought about psychology, to help
people, but it just didn¹t click.

"But something did click in," he says, "and I wanted to do art."

Hang said he had drawn since childhood, "because in the refugee camp where
I
was born in Thailand, I didn¹t have toys."

Now, wanting to build a life, Hang said, "I wanted to do something for kids
like me, born into poverty. I wanted to be able to paint and to let the
viewer see. Let people see a different side of life. I want to be these
children¹s voice, so they could be understood too," says Hang.

Kyte says "Han was displaying his pictures at the First Congregational
Church in Dalton when he first heard of our efforts to raise funds to help
create safe, secure and functional schools for African school children.

"When Han saw photos and video of the schools and children in Kenya," says
Kyte,  "he came to me and told me he didn¹t have any money to contribute to
the cause. But he said he would like to donate four paintings he had done as
a class project, ?if they would help.¹

Paintings of children of pain and loss and poverty

"It was perfect," says Kyte. "Han¹s paintings were of children, children of
pain and loss and poverty, very raw and direct­ just like some of the
children we¹re seeking to help.

"From there," says Kyte, "the idea just grew quickly in our congregation and
other churches in the community to stage a whole art show and auction."

"I heard how so many of these kids [in Africa], don¹t get a chance to be
educated. Especially the girls," says Hang. "I learned how some of the girls
in Kenya have to walk back and forth 12 miles every day. They fetch water to
bring back to their homes. They walk to school and back. And this one girl
they showed," he said, "then has to take care of her brothers and sisters.

"I felt ashamed, because I was taking it all [school] for granted."

Hang says he knows that pursuing an art career may not make him rich and
famous. He says he intends to pursue it anyway. "My intention is to make
people stop for a moment and look at a life that no one seems to notice till
it¹s too late.

"Nobody really cared till the situation got worse, from AIDS," says Han
about Africa and its crushing poverty.	"I might not have much," he says,
"but I have more than those people. I have something these poor kids don¹t
got, even if it¹s a dollar or two dollars I have in my pocket.

"I fear that these are the voice that no one hears."

For more information about the Church World Service School Safe Zones
project, visit: http://www.churchworldservice.org/africainitiative/ssz.html
and http://www.churchworldservice.org/Development/archives/2005/03/42.html

			###

Media Contacts:
Jan Dragin/Dragin Communications, (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
Ann Walle/CWS/New York, (212) 870-2654, awalle@churchworldservice.org

Dalton, MA Contact: Kathy DiOrio, First Congregational Church, (413)
684-1715

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