Students create memories for Malaysian orphans

THOMASVILLE - This spring, Brookwood School art students have been hard at work creating portraits of Malaysian orphans for The Memory Project. The Memory Project is a nonprofit organization that encourages art students across the nation to paint and donate renderings of orphans around the world who have experienced adversity, including poverty, natural disasters, neglect, and significant loss. Given that youth in such situations usually have few personal keepsakes, these portraits serve not only as a significant piece of tangible history, but as an important reminder that they are valued and loved. For the art students, this project helps to foster empathy and a heightened understanding of the global community as well as to enhance their creative skills.

The Memory Project has operated for 14 years, partnered with orphanages in 44 countries, and collected over 100,000 portrait donations from art students. “Many of these orphans that we have done portraits for have lost their families and all of their possessions due to natural disasters or war. Creating portraits for the orphans will give them a personal keepsake and hopefully will have a lasting impact where they know someone cares about them.” said art teacher Maureen Springfield. This
year is the 13th year Brookwood has participated in The Memory Project. Students produced 17 portraits of Malaysian orphans.