Our first portraits by Libyan artist!

From a small quantity of art paper and coloured pencils supplied by ISL, and taking with details taken from the lcd screen of a digital Sony camera, Jo and I are now proud owners of the above signed portraits.

Lobna, a sixteen year old Sudanese girl, born in Libya, who has never had any formal training, asked me if she could draw pictures of Jodie and I. And the next day she presented us with these. So beautiful a gift and what the student program between EVAM (the asylum seeker's centre where I volunteer) and ISL (the school where Jodie works) is all about cultivating. The talents and passions of young people, no matter their social situation.

During the last 3-4 weeks the students in this program have been getting to know each other through cooking, sport and talking. Next Wednesday we start art, craft and photography as well as continuing with sport. A major outcome for the program is a public art/photography exhibition in Lausanne in November to highlight the difficulties faced by the children of refugees. A highlight of the exhibition will be a photoactivism project (printed by JR of France- see previous TED blog)

Lobna is an angel at my end of the program. She is an organised and a confident communicator. Lobna speaks Arabic, English and Korean (taught herself by watching Korean TV) and is to start French next week. On top of this add the qualities of honesty, openness, compassion and creativity,  and this makes her a young woman with the ability to articulate the particular journey of living her whole life in Libya and the recent exodus from there with her family. (Mum, dad, two sisters, two brothers). Her written story will be something amazing when it is in print.

Thank you Lobna. These will go straight onto the pool room wall when we move back to Australie.

Lizzie (L) talking with le artiste, Lobna