Teaching Through Art- Newsletter July-September 08

Me with Completed Mural, Kikaaya College, originally uploaded by amanda.milholland.

By Amanda Milholland

We have been busy with many projects this quarter, the most exciting one for me being the HIV/AIDS student mural project. In addition to completing a student designed mural at Kikaaya College, we continued our work in education adding one new school, as well as in other sectors. We hosted several special guests and were also happy to be special guests at two schools. Last but not least, we hosted three voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing events this quarter.

The student mural project, which was funded by Daniel Milosivich’s class of Blue Herron Middle School, Port Townsend, WA, involved around 30 secondary students of all levels. Kikaaya College, the recipient school, serves about 600 students. It is one of the first schools I started working with when I joined KACCAD two years ago. Blue Herron Middle School is the middle school I attended for 8th grade, so it was quite special for me that students from this school chose to fund a project at a school where I now work. When Blue Herron Middle School students expressed interest in giving a gift to students in Wakiso, I suggested a mural as a way to give something lasting through which students and the community can learn. We all learn in different ways, but in Uganda students are mostly taught to memorize and repeat. This project was designed to give students a visual reminder of how HIV is passed and prevented. At the same time, students strengthened their art skills and saw that we can accomplish something great with many hands.

The project started with KACCAD volunteers organizing the students and teachers. We went class to class and also spoke in front of a general school assembly. We encouraged students to make designs and submit them. We got many great designs but agreed with Kikaaya College staff that the best design was the one submitted by Okoche Gilbert, a senior 6 student. Once the design was chosen we made an announcement to the students and awarded Gilbert with payment of one term of school fees. The following two weekends we worked with students to first arrange and graph the design on the school walls and then to paint it. Many muralists use the same technique or graphing a design on a wall. This technique is just one of the things participating students learned through the painting process. We were very impressed with the design submitted, the student participation in graphing the design on the wall and painting as well as with the completed mural. Students were really excited to have the opportunity to show their talent and learn new skills like mixing colors and laying out a design on a wall. Many of the students who participated were new to art and thus happy to see that they too are artists and can make something beautiful. KACCAD sincerely thanks Daniel Milosivich’s class for their donation. It was a huge gift to Kikaaya College, one that will give to generations of students.