Emmanuel, above, was abducted to be a child soldier at the tender age of 9. After his 11th birthday he sustained a gunshot wound to the head during combat. He is now reunited with his family and declares hope for those affected by war.
Freedom in Creation (FIC) empowers war-affected or at-risk communities through increased access to the therapeutic qualities of art, international education, and fresh drinking water. By providing therapeutic art classes for at-risk children and exhibiting their artwork internationally, FIC raises funds to provide participating communities with water and educational infrastructure. Having taken part in the process, the children are credited with bringing the water and infrastructure projects to their community.
Therapeutic Art Activities
FIC provides opportunities for 35 war-affected children to express themselves through art as therapy and art as education. These weekly three-hour art classes are led by FIC volunteers including teachers, pastors, artists, and community elders. Participating children are able to express themselves in a healthy peer environment through the creation of art. The process of making art helps to reinstate their dignity, affirms them, and encourages socialization and reintegration of former child soldiers into mainstream society.
FIC invests in international education by providing art as education for the 35 participants in our program. FIC invests in the building and renovation of educational facilities. In Uganda, for example, FIC partnered with the Koro Abili Primary School to renovate a center for visual art; a center for music, dance, and drama; and a public library. FIC collaborated with U.S. and local Uganda partners to resource the community with 17,000 books.
FIC invests in long-term relationships with schools, institutions, volunteers, and artists to encourage international dialogue and education. Such investments include facilitating opportunities to learn, serve, collaborate with, and contribute to the communities with whom FIC works. FIC facilitates national and international art exchanges between children and adults in the international community to encourage a sense of “commonalities before differences,” peace building, and the way in which the world is connected as a global village.
Fresh Water & Water and Hygiene Sanitation Training
FIC provides clean drinking water and hygiene sanitation training to underprivileged communities with the renovation of broken water wells and the drilling of new wells. Rehabilitation and drill sites are selected based on consultations with the local community.
