LYNN — A few months ago, a stack of black and white photos arrived at English High School.
“MA20-B1057 – Zafar – 13 years-old likes green,” read the caption on one of the photographs, a portrait of a young boy.
Not much is known about Zafar, other than his face, his age, his status as a refugee in Malaysia and, of course, that he likes green.
But art students at Lynn English have been drawing portraits of Zafar, and eight other refugees in Malaysia, since the photos arrived in December, rendering their likenesses with pencil, paint and ink.
English is one of the many schools participating in the Memory Project’s Portrait Program. The nonprofit Memory Project will collect the portraits Monday, then deliver each portrait to its respective child.
“Art is the universal language,” said art teacher Martha Brown, as the nine students selected to participate in the program added finishing touches to the portraits Thursday afternoon.
The selected students are adept artists, hand-picked by art teacher Kristen Paradis to participate in the program, and they have been spending countless hours working on the portraits outside of class.
“It was just a nice thing to do, especially the message it sends,” said 11th grader Lydia Splaine, who has been drawing Zafar.
The Memory Project was founded in 2004 by Ben Schumaker, a psychologist and social worker who spent time at an orphanage in Guatemala during his time as a University of Wisconsin student. Having always enjoyed art, Schumaker realized he could make the orphans happy with personal portraiture.
Since its founding, the Memory Project has distributed art to more than 250,000 children across the world, with high schools across the U.S. participating in its Portrait Program.
Memory Project staff emailed English’ art department, initiating the school’s participation. Normally, the project costs $15 per student participant, but an anonymous donor funded the Lynn English students’ participation.
The children receiving personal portraits are just a few of the more than 175,000 refugees who have landed in Malaysia in the past decade, according to the Memory Project. Many of them are religious minorities, like the Rohingya, who have fled Myanmar to escape persecution. They have been orphaned and suffered violence and homelessness.
“These kids had nothing more than the shirt on their backs,” Paradis said. “Our students are giving art as a gift. They don’t get anything. They don’t get recognition or praise, they are just doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.”
Given the refugees’ circumstances, the students are hopeful their portraits have a positive impact, and have been working extra hard to ensure the portraits look as close to their owners as possible.
“It has definitely made me try much harder,” said Dominic Neumyer, a senior who has been drawing Mustafa, 11. “But I’m feeling really good about it. It is very heartfelt to think of these kids. I think it’s a good message to let him know that there are people there for him.”
Willian Henriquez, an 11th grader, has been taking his portrait of 11-year-old Kurban home in addition to working on it between classes and after school. He is eager to send it off.
“It’s been hard because I normally draw faces with more of a cartoon style,” Henriquez said. “This is the first time with shading and light (in the portrait). I’ve worked on it for too many hours to count.”
The students came up with a collective name for their nine portraits, “Creating a Kinder World Through Art.”
“I’m not really used to drawing people, but I’m happy with this,” said senior Ashley Banks, who has drawn Shi Ling, 16.
David McLellan can be reached at [email protected].
