Yesterday, while Johnny and I were having a quick break from decorating, I came across
this post from
Octwelve, a design blog written by MaryLuc Melgar. Luc has written an article as a contribution for
'Blog Action Day 2008.' What's that then I hear you cry? Well...
This year's topic is poverty and bloggers everywhere are encouraged to write about this subject, giving it their own unique spin.
Today, I was reading through an email from Just Creative Design, a fantastic design blog written by Jacob Cass. Jacob has a weekly feature called 'Designer in the Spotlight' and this weeks focussed on a really talented designer called Doug Cloud. I took a look at Doug's blog and found another post, similar to the one on Octwelves called Poverty of the Heart. It's strange I thought that I hadn't heard about this before so I looked at JCD and sure enough Jacob's written about it too, here.
BAD:08 was on 15th October, so although we're a little late here is our contribution to this year's Blog Action Day.
Just over a year ago we both got involved in an International Volunteering project called 'Leeds Met Poland 2007.' With only a couple of weeks to prepare for the trip we were able to secure sponsorship from many companies including Dean Clough Art Gallery in Halifax, The New Technology Institute in Leeds and Yorkshire Forward. We travelled to the city of Lublin on the East side of Poland (one of the poorer areas) to work within two arts therapy centres: Matki Teresy z Kalcutty (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) and Fundacja Miedzy Nami (The Among Us Foundation). For two weeks, along with a team of volunteers and staff, we worked with adults who have physical and learning disabilities.
During our stay we took part in various indoor and outdoor workshops including ceramics and painting. We even had the opportunity to help put an exhibition together to celebrate the work of ‘Stash’ one of the artists from MTK.
This is our
diary from the Leeds Met Community, Partnerships and Volunteering webpage. Here’s what I wrote about our experiences after we returned last March:
Nine months have passed since our first visit to the arts therapy centres. The experiences we had and the friendships we made during our time in Poland were extraordinary. The artists are so talented and the people running the centres, so visionary that when we were asked for our help in promoting their creative endeavours we both eagerly accepted.
Working with disabled artists was at first a daunting prospect but after seeing for ourselves the warmth and kindness that they have to offer the nervousness just melted away. Our first visit was incredible but returning to visit our friends for a second time was a real honour and a joy. We entered the centres believing we were there to teach them something when in fact the opposite was closer to the truth. They taught us more about ourselves, how fortunate we are and what we have to offer the world than any amount of teaching we could offer them.
Me, with my new friend Agnieszka who's sporting a Fundacja T-Shirt. We had these made to hand out as gifts.
When the opportunity arose to give them something back, to help them in their creative endeavours and to raise an awareness of their pioneering work we both leapt at the chance. We felt that this could be best accomplished by integrating this project with the final year of my BSc and in parallel through our branding and promotions company, Kooji Creative. The end of the degree is now within sight and it has been a hugely rewarding project but it doesn’t end here.
I wrote several reflections after this trip as I felt I needed to let everyone know how eye opening it had been. Here are some relevant snippets from the ones that were published:
It's amazing how one decision in your life can affect so many others. The experience was so fulfilling and really opened our eyes to new possibilities. It made us realise how fortunate we are and how important it is to make the most of what we have. This single opportunity began to branch out and when we were asked to help them by promoting the centres and their artwork we were very keen to do whatever we could. By integrating this with the final year group project on the BSc and also through our business, Kooji Creative, we were able to involve so many more people.
However impossible something may appear it is important to reach out and grasp opportunities, to make the most of every day and to see how in turn, you can make a difference to the world around you.
It was an incredibly rewarding experience and our involvement is ongoing. Most importantly we learned to appreciate what we have and to remember that there are always others less fortunate than ourselves.
Here's a photo of Katherine with Professor Reinhold Behringer from Leeds Met University. He works in Innovation North, the faculty where we both studied.
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