Diversion House Transition to Horizon House

Over the past year we've been privileged to collaborate with Catalysts in their Diversion House project, that admitted young girls, ages 12-17, from the streets of Delhi and provided them with a safe place to re-orient their lives.

From the original batch of 10 girls, 1 was required to leave by her family, and 1 has been asked to leave because she has not benefitted from the new, structured community environment. Of the remaining 8 girls, tremendous progress has been seen, so much so they are being moved to Horizon House where they will learn more independent living and continue schooling and job-skill training.

Following are some pictures of the girls in front of the Diversion House murals (first 5 photos in which they are modeling a dupetta some are learning to embroider), and in front of their original ideas for a new mural at Horizon House (with an additional photo of the girls serving us lunch at Diversion House), and finally some of the Horizon House mural work-in-progress. We're sure more will follow as the aim is to finish these two murals in the front room and begin individual pieces in the girls' rooms. We hope you enjoy this photo journey....

Impromptu Art Class in Mussoorie

While in Mussoorie, our host made it possible for us to offer a short water color activity to some of the children (and not so "children," ages ranged from about 3 to mid-20s!)) in the neighborhood. We used the theme of an "Underwater Garden" again, though many had great difficulty in the imagining of something outside their personal realm of experiences. Nonetheless, they tried...see below for some pictures of the time:

Mussorie 2010

Once again we we were able to get away from the intense Delhi heat to stay in Mussoorie, a hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas, and stay with our friends there. 

 

While there we were able to connect again with Ruskin Bond, an Indian author who has given us permission to use the title, "Blue Umbrella," for our art academy from the book he wrote by that title.

Mussoorie and the area around it is quite scenic. Here is a small taste...

Once again, somehow they found out it was Chuck's birthday so there was another celebration.

Diversion House - Underwater Gardens

On May 25th Janis and Chuck went to Diversion House again (a refuge house, run by a Kingdom agency in New Delhi, for girls ages 12-16 rescued from various situations on the streets of New Delhi). Somehow :) they found out it was Chuck's birthday on the 27th so they prepared a birthday celebration too!

Kids Art Camp - Conclusion

Below will be pictures from the last two days of Kids Art Camp - Art Explosion. Day 2 was Painting, Day 3 Sculpture. Most of the following are from the younger kids class.....