ALKHOBAR, 2 February 2007 — Thanks to the generosity of the participants in the Seventh Annual Art Show at the International Schools Group Dhahran High School (DHS), families in the Philippines, Lebanon and Sri Lanka will be receiving new homes this year. The annual art show is the single largest fund-raising effort at DHS to support the school’s “Habitat for Humanity” Club. This year’s event was the best ever, raising SR20,000 for Habitat for Humanity in one night.
An international nonprofit organization, Habitat for Humanity works around the world with volunteers from all backgrounds, races and religions to build homes together with families in need. This year about 80 students are members of the DHS Habitat for Humanity Club (HFH). Under the leadership of HFH Club President Bernie James, VP Fatima Rizvi, Secretary Sidra Naseem and Treasurer Febria Tjan, the students have been staging almost continuous fund-raising efforts and now have earned SR75,000. Of that amount, SR35,000 is to be donated to Habitat for Humanity in the Philippines. The remainder of the funds will be divided between Habitat for Humanity groups in Sri Lanka and Lebanon. Next week, four teachers and 24 students will be traveling to the Philippines to participate in building houses for those in need. Funds for the trip are paid from a separate budget — not from the Habitat for Humanity donations.
DHS teachers Bernie and Dave Reeves are the advisers for HFH and DHS teacher Abeera Atique is the organizer for the art show. According to Atique, 110 students participated in the art show, which takes nearly six months to organize.
“The students created more than 1,100 works of art to display at the show. Many of the best of these were sold to benefit Habitat for Humanity,” Atique said. “About 400 people attended the show which featured a dinner, silent auction, raffle and entertainment. We would like to thank The Grill, Schlumberger and Gulf Air who all supported our fund raising efforts.”
She added, “More than 30 students donated monies earned through the sale of their art to Habitat for Humanity and I would specifically like to mention Hiba Bakhteyar. She donated the proceeds earned from all her paintings to Habitat for Humanity, including that of one painting which sold for SR500.”
Based on the quality of their artwork, other outstanding DHS students involved in the art show were Jeong Im Lee, Abeer Iqbal, Quratulain Adil, Farah Nassar, Razan Chaar, Ziyad Al-Buainain, Hijab Shah, Fatima Rizvi, Nudrat Mahmood, Sara Abdul Halim and Roaa Taha.
“Our goal with the art show is more than just fundraising. We want students to see that something as simple as paint on canvas can be employed to produce a dramatic difference in life,“ Atique explained. “And don’t think that it is only the people who will be benefiting from the new Habitat for Humanity homes whose lives are changed. No, we have seen that many students come back dramatically changed after they volunteer to help build homes in an impoverished area.”
In recent years, DHS students have traveled to Sri Lanka to participate in Habitat for Humanity home building efforts there. Atique remarked that before the trip most of the students have never had to cope in an environment where mosquitoes, flies and a lack of modern sanitary facilities are the norm.
“These students have never lived without electricity. They have never seen poverty up close,” said Atique. “On one trip when I was with DHS students, we were helping to build a home for a woman who had seven children and her husband was handicapped. When we gave her the keys to the house she was crying and invited us all to come eat dinner with them. We were 25 people and she had very few dishes so we ate six people at a time so that the dishes could be washed and then used for the next group of people. The students here at DHS have never experienced denial of any of the basic necessities of life and most live in luxury. These trips open their eyes to the reality of life for many people on our planet.”
Atique hopes to share her experiences on the importance of art in an education setting and toward that goal she has been invited to speak about the Psychology of the Arts at the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) conference in November in Madrid. She will be using digitized versions of her students’ artwork to demonstrate the profound impact of art on young minds.