The 10-year-old orphan loves playing games. His favorite color is red. He is considered honest, active and smart by the adults who care for him in India.
And for the past two weeks, Westerville Central High School senior Kenna Malley has carefully painted his portrait to show him that someone from the other side of the world is thinking of him and wants him to know he is loved.
“This project is super meaningful,” she said. “I was excited about it and it just warms my heart and thinking about the reactions we’ll get from these.”
Advanced painting students in Jen Kiko’s art classes are creating portraits of 25 orphans from India through the Memory Project, a nonprofit organization that invites art teachers and their students to create portraits for youth around the world who have faced substantial challenges, such as neglect, abuse, loss of parents and extreme poverty.
Kiko has hosted the project multiple times over the past 10 years, with previous students creating portraits of youth from Rwanda and the Dominican Republic. The Memory Project provides Kiko with photos of the orphaned kids and she invites her advanced painting students to create a portrait that will be given to them.
The project offers a real-world application of the technical painting skills students learn in class, Kiko said.
“It’s using your gift as a gift,” she said.
Once students complete their artwork for the project, they will trace their hand and sign their name on the back of their art. Kiko will mail the finished pieces to the Memory Project, who will then share with the kids in India. A Memory Project ambassador captures the kids’ reactions to their portraits on video, which will then be shared with WCHS students.
Kiko had previously received grant dollars to cover Memory Project fees and postage costs for the students participating in the project. This year, an anonymous donation to the Memory Project supported the costs for WCHS students.
Senior Yassmine Kassab said the project has been an eye-opening experience.
“I feel like when we’re in this part of America, you never see what happens in other parts of the world,” she said. “I’m super excited to see their reactions. I hope they really, really love it and that it might bring a little brightness to their day.”
Junior Olivia Eckhardt said she feels connected to the 10-year-girl whose portrait she painted for the project. She was drawn to the girl’s smiling face and how her favorite color is rose — an uncommon choice among all the other kids.
“I hope that they take away that they are people thinking of them,” she said. “They don’t have their parents, which is something I know I really needed growing up. I hope they know that someone is thinking of them so far away and they have a connection with someone even though they don’t know them.”