JEDDAH: The paintings by disabled children were auctioned off on Monday at the seventh charity fundraiser entitled “Color Their Life” at Jeddah’s Lailaty Hall. The auction raised SR1.2 million on the sale of 35 of the 60 painting that were on the block.
Members of the royal family, businessmen and members of the diplomatic corps attended the auction.
Four volunteer artists helped the children produce these paintings. The auction had a section where four disabled girls were painting with the help of artists. A disabled boy read the Qur’an at the beginning of the auction.
A teacher who did not want her name published said she was disappointed that there weren’t many kids participating in the event.
“We expected to find them and speak to them but there was only few of them,” she said.
According to one of the volunteer artists at the event, Kulud Al-Bugami, many of the parents didn’t want their disabled children to attend the function. “There is still a general lack of awareness with the families, leading them to prevent their children from participating in public events,” said Al-Bugami. “We have to do more to convince parents to allow their disabled children to be seen in public rather than hiding them and preventing even their names from appearing on their paintings.”
