“Given that kids in such situations usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the portraits is to provide them with a special memory of their youth and to help honor their self identity,” Sav said. “The project also allows art students to practice kindness, empathy and service to others.”
Students received photos of Cambodian children on the Memory Project waiting list and then selected which medium they would use to create the portraits. The completed pictures were sent to the Memory Project.
Once received by the nonprofit, the portraits were delivered personally to the children as gifts. Representatives of the Memory Project also took photos of the children holding the portraits to send back to Sav’s students.
The Springboro artwork recently was delivered to the children of an orphanage in Cambodia, and the SHS students were able to watch a video capturing the moment they received their personal portraits.
“It was very rewarding to see the children’s’ faces light up in the video when they had the portraits in their hands,” said SHS senior Maddie Lee.
Witnessing her students expand their cultural awareness by connecting with children around the world through art was a very fulfilling experience for Sav.
“I was very touched by the video of the children in the orphanage receiving the portraits that my students created,” she said. “It’s rewarding to my students and me to help others, show compassion and connect through art. The orphans have a keepsake from another child from another part of the world. I believe it allows my students to expand their worldview through showing compassion and creating a work of art for someone else as a special gift. This project exposed them to diverse ways of living and helps to raise awareness for those who may be less fortunate in the world.”
The Memory Project began in 2004 by partnering with different nonprofit organizations to create portraits for the children they serve. To date the project has created nearly 50,000 portraits for kids in 34 countries. Sav and her students already are creating more portraits for children in an orphanage in the Philippines.
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