All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
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5<br />
Drawing 3: Darfur, 2005.<br />
“<strong>All</strong> of us … holding each other by<br />
the arms to keep together. Here in<br />
camp we are safe, but my father …<br />
was lost.”<br />
~Nine-year-old Darfur girl<br />
Drawing 4: Darfur, Girl, age 9, 2005.<br />
lower left, the child has drawn what appears<br />
to be a member of the Janjaweed, roaming<br />
armed groups in Sudan’s Darfur region and<br />
elsewhere. The figure is drawn in fuller<br />
detail than the terrified victims.<br />
“ … <strong>All</strong> of us … holding each other by<br />
the arms to keep together. Here in camp<br />
we are safe, but my father … was lost.”<br />
The comparative lack of detail in the<br />
rendering of the victims puts in high relief<br />
the primacy of human connection, as<br />
seen in the figures holding each other, as<br />
if constituting one mass. In this example,<br />
we can see that drawing gives children a<br />
means for processing the catastrophe that<br />
befell them, bringing potential benefits.<br />
For example, it can get the fear out of the<br />
child’s mind by objectifying it on the page;<br />
this is a beginning, a foundation for later<br />
understanding. If it’s out there, it can be<br />
examined. Drawing 4 also is interesting in<br />
that it illustrates the emotional importance<br />
of family. Mental health workers and<br />
researchers typically find that family or<br />
community support can be associated with<br />
resilience and psychological survival.<br />
Escape<br />
The paired drawings<br />
numbered 5a and 5b<br />
show stunningly similar<br />
evacuations from internal<br />
armed conflict in Spain and<br />
the former Yugoslavia –<br />
events separated by over<br />
50 years.<br />
In each, we see children<br />
boarding vehicles to a<br />
safe destination as parents<br />
look on. The weight of<br />
separation and the unknown<br />
future are clear.<br />
Drawing 5a: Spain, “Evacuation” c. 1937.<br />
Drawing 5b: Croatia, “Evacuation” c. 1991.<br />
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring <strong>2011</strong>