Special children paint wall in myriad hues

THANE: Special children gave their heart and soul and painted lively pictures on the exterior wall of Swayam Rehabilitation Centre for Spastics a few days ago.
The young brigade paid meticulous attention while drawing children's toys such as small dogs, joker, butterfly, caterpillar, duck, dolls and drums and painted those using vibrant colours. The response was overwhelming.
For over four hours, the kids heartily enjoyed bringing their creativity alive on their canvas, which in this case was a wall.
Some of the kids who painted the wall with a riot of colours were Manoj Wagal and Ashish Karana from Vishwas centre for mentally retarded children, Rajendra Chauhan, Dharmendra Singh and Heider Bepari from Kamalini Hearing Impaired Children's School and Rafat Shiekh and Sagarika Sidye from Zaveriben Thanawala Karnabadhir Vidyalaya.
Their outlines were steady, some slightly thicker than the others, and they finished the paintings with deft touches. Though it was difficult for them to communicate verbally, their smiling faces and glowing eyes exemplified their feelings.
Artist Shailesh Salvi, who has taken the responsibility of designing and executing the project, feels that to work with special children a person must have genuine love and confidence in their ability.
"I strongly believe in the artistic abilities of special children. They are capable of visualizing their ideas and if tackled sensitively, they produce amazing results," said Salvi.
Before starting work, Salvi visited each school at least twice, interacted with the children and explained that as they had to make the paintings for spastic kids, who are like infants, they had to draw pictures of attractive toys.
"Everyone dedicatedly worked on the theme. I helped them to make paintings to match up to the size of the walls and suggested colour schemes," said Salvi.
Ashish Karana from Vishwas said, "I love to paint. Here, I have drawn the rotating wheel toy that is hung on a baby's cradle."
Neeta Deolankar, founder and managing director of Swayam, said, "These young artists from special schools have transformed the mundane look of our walls into a vibrant, fresh look that our children will love."