COVID-19 has made it difficult for community-focused organizations like ours to physically continue to engage children and also enable them to learn together. These are challenging times for any of us to provide full support to the beneficiaries of our programs. The time of the pandemic has made it difficult for us as artists to continue learning together in our space. However, if we don’t reach out to some of these children, they will lose hope for their future since they are undergoing a time with intense pressure, filled with negativity but yet, such time needs them to smile, be appreciated and be creative.

WHAT WE DO ABOUT IT

With financial support from African Culture Fund (ACF), we offered young people below 19 years a chance to express themselves, give the world a glimpse into their experience of a lockdown and above all, get rewarded for their amazing artworks because we need future artists and optimistic young people for a better tomorrow.

The project engaged 342 young people from all over Uganda including refugees and children with special needs and at the end, we conducted a one-month group exhibition at Motiv – Creator’s space Bugolobi. Over 200 people visited the show. The best three artists in the different age brackets 16-19 years, 11-15 years and 11 years and below were awarded cash prizes of 500,000, 250,000 and 150,000 respectively. View some of the artworks HERE