Colors of my life
While growing up we tend to loose certain part of ourselves. The part that sees the world as a big playground full of fantastic opportunities to discover and dream. Over time, this world collides increasingly with the world of adults, against whom we rebel and who we at first see as strange. But suddenly we become a part of their world; out of the blue we are living in a world which tends to underestimate children; we might see them as unable to match our sophisticated, educated and experienced minds, our crafts and skills. But it is most healthy to try to keep the inner child even though we might be grown up and living in a world of duty, responsibility and work. It is necessary to give children voice and tools to comment the reality and space we are sharing. They can be very creative and show us a very good mirror. Children might teach us a lot about ourselves and the world we create as grown-ups.
These are stories of children from 9 countries. The reality and the colors of their lives might be very similar or very different to the ones of children living here. It is up to YOU to decide. Their villages and towns may be geographically rather distant, but in our new globalized world everything is connected more than ever before in the history of mankind, sometimes more than we could imagine. Our actions here will have an impact on people on the other side of the world. They might impact their poverty or their happiness. It is our personal choice.
In 2011, Utrecht University students of International Development Studies traveled to developing countries to do an internship and to conduct research for their thesis. Some of them had a vision in common of an exhibition of children’s drawings that would show a bit more of the world they were about to experience. There are many stereotypes about developing countries and people living in them. Children in countries such as India, Ethiopia and Guatemala might have a harder life than children in the Netherlands in some terms, but their lives are also colorful and playful. They are sometimes crying and sometimes smiling. But all of them love to draw.