From April 30 to May 5, 2018, we at GOFAR BANK, with the cooperation of the NPO Seven Spirit, held a painting workshop in Cebu, Philippines, to teach children the joy of painting.

Cebu, Philippines, is known as a resort destination with beautiful seas.
This island, which is visited by many people from Japan, has slums that spread out next to the tourist-filled resort areas, and many children live there, begging for money and picking up trash from the garbage dumps.

In addition, not only do public schools in Cebu not offer music, physical education, or art classes, but some children drop out of school for various reasons and turn to crime.

As a result, most of the children have never had the experience of painting with paints.
Hoping that these children would experience the joy of painting and the fun of mixing colors, we brought many art supplies from Japan.
In the first poor community we visited, we held a workshop where about 45 children between the ages of 2 and 13 were asked to draw on a box template.
While the paint was drying, the children played with the balloons they had brought with them, and when they finished, we put souvenirs from Japan in the boxes and presented them as presents. In addition to the joy of mixing colors with paints for the first time and the joy of seeing their drawings become three-dimensional boxes, the children’s eyes lit up when they saw the delicious Japanese sweets that we had donated, and they showed us wonderful smiles.

On the second day, we held a packaging and balloon art workshop for about 20 children living in a garbage dump in the Inayawan district.
The children live in houses built with trash they had picked up. Their eyes were straight as they painted, shining brightly, and they gave us beaming smiles.

Many families in the garbage dump washed and reheated the food waste they had picked up to eat, and we also gave sets of art supplies, sweets, juice, and other gifts to about 100 children who were unable to participate in the workshop.
In the afternoon on all three days, we had about 50 children from the SEVEN SPIRIT music school draw pictures on the classroom walls.
This workshop was held for three consecutive days, with the hope that the children would have an exciting experience for the next day. The children lost track of time as they were able to draw whatever they wanted on the large white wall, and looked forward to the next day’s session.

We deliberately brought only black, white, and the three primary colors of acrylic paint from Japan, so that we could also convey the joy of mixing paints to create your own favorite colors.

The children discovered the joy of the magical world of art. They said that they would continue to draw pictures on the walls even after we returned to Japan.
The children in the classroom also enjoyed making packages, balloon art, and paper airplane projects.
On the last day, we received a gift of a performance from the children, and we couldn’t stop the tears.

In Cebu, too, the time we spent drawing with the children was filled with joy, and we saw many bright smiles. It was a wonderful project that allowed us to once again feel the power of art that knows no language or borders.

This project was a success thanks to the support, warm hearts, and kindness of so many people. We are truly grateful.

GOFAR BANK sincerely hopes to see smiles on the faces of all children on this planet, and will continue to carry out our “The Joy of Drawing Transcends Borders” activities