On Wednesday, a non-profit organization staged a daylong exhibition of the artwork of roughly ten Afghan female refugee students, with the intention of contributing earnings to the girls’ education.
Raqqa Nadri, 16, is one such girl. She fled to Pakistan last year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan and is currently enrolled in the 10th grade at the Roshan School in Islamabad, which is run by the Uplift Afghanistan Fund, a non-profit that pairs “compassionate, impact-driven donors with community-led initiatives and grassroots organizations they can trust.”
Afghanistan is still one of the most dangerous places in the world for children to live because of the ongoing danger that conflict and natural disasters present to households there. Families are frequently forced to make desperate choices as a result of the nation’s deepening economic crisis, such as forcing girls into early marriages or encouraging their kids to go to work. The overwhelming majority of refugees Save the Children has worked with states that their primary motivation for leaving was to provide their children a shot at childhood, an education, and a future.
Many Afghan children who leave the country end up working in low-paying positions in the unorganized economy or in small businesses. If these children return to Afghanistan, they often hold trauma, face the challenges of years of lost learning, or have not received decent health care or education.
Nadri claimed to have found “comfort in painting” and expressed the hope that the “Afghan Girls’ Hopes Art Exhibition” will contribute to funding the education of many refugee kids in Islamabad, including herself. She claimed that in addition to being a means of artistic expression, her paintings served as a reflection of her life as an Afghan refugee.
According to Nadri, “My paintings are centered on the theme of all those girls who were abandoned in Afghanistan.” “I painted a girl holding a mirror, seeing through it with her imagination to the other side.”
When Nadri was ten years old, she first became interested in art, but it wasn’t until she moved to Pakistan that she really had a chance to pursue it. She went on to say, “I met my art teacher in Islamabad who checked my work and promised to assist me to learn and improve my artistic talents.
Baseera Joya, a 13-year-old budding artist whose family relocated to Islamabad from Ghazni last year, claimed to have spent the previous three months preparing for the exhibition. According to the artist, “Today, in this exhibition, I am displaying one painting, which reflects the passing of time in today’s world and the “highs and lows” people and nations experience,” she said.
“I want peace and security in Afghanistan as it felt so bad to leave my home but Afghan girls are helpless and don’t have security there,” she added.
