Oak Forest High Schoolers Craft Portraits of Refugees

One Oak Forest High School Studio Art class is putting a kinder face forward for a group of refugee children who are living in a refugee camp on the border of Bangladesh.

Oak Forest High School Studio Art teacher, Mr. Dan Chambers, explains the class learned about a horrific genocide that had taken place in these children’s homeland, which is Myanmar.

“We researched what happened to these kids and watched a video about them,” says Chambers.

Students discovered these children are part of an ethnic minority called the Rohingya ethnic minority and have been called the “most unwanted” group of people on earth. The children fled for their lives from genocide last year and now are surviving with only a few clothes and a couple of cooking pans in an enormous refugee camp on the border of Bangladesh. Additionally, these children have never seen pictures of themselves.

Chambers was approached by The Memory Project who asked if his Studio Art class would be willing to create portraits of some of these children. The students jumped at the chance and began their work. Not only did students create a portrait of a child, but they also included a picture of themselves and a short message of encouragement. Even Chambers himself participated in the project and drew a portrait.

To learn more about the Rohingya Ethnic Minority, Oak Forest High School students encourage you to visit The Memory Project at www.memoryproject.org/rohingya.