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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright March 2023
It's a sunny day in Alor Setar Deen, an OKU we have previously featured in this column, is out on his motorised wheelchair donated by a good samaritan, teaching members of Kelab Pecinta Alam (KPA) and Malayan Nature Society (MNS) to paint outdoors.
A teacher who is a member of MNS Kedah and an adviser to KPA saw an article about Deen whom we featured on Newswav winning awards from a hospital for being an exemplary OKU, contacted him to help show fellow teachers how to train children to make art out of pebbles.
They met at a little park outside the Kedah Darulaman State Secretariat office complex with each bringing potluck picnic meals to be shared by about 20 participants.
Deen showed up driving his new motorised wheelchair by himself with his wife and kids in tow. He set up his table, easels, canvas, pebbles and a selection of acrylic paints ready for class.
He told me that many of the teachers and children present had never heard of acrylic paints.
Deen told me when I interviewed him after the event "To them the only paint they know is house paints!"
We agreed that when we stopped teaching art in school children grow up without knowing anything about the subject. Nor do they know how to appreciate art.
Anyway, back to the event Deen showed them how to choose the best pebbles from nearby rivers. Then use their imagination to be creative either piecing them together as pebble art or painting on them to create objects of art.
He then pieced the pebbles together into a picture of a family of five watching the sunset.
He told me, such examples helped motivate participants to think of creative ways to make use of river pebbles.
Next, he showed them how to paint some pebbles and turned them into colourful lady birds.
On these pages, we share with you some photos of handiworks that grew out of a workshop Deen held one morning in an outdoor class in early March that only a creative OKU could think of.
Deen told me that the idea of having an outdoor class came from him.
"When you hold an art class underneath a large angsana tree, you do not have to pay rent for a meeting room. Not furniture is needed. Mengkuang mats on the ground and everyone sat in a semi curcle facing him on his wheelchair. "In an instance you have a classroom. Besides KPA or MNS save money."
"At the same, children might even get a chance to appreciate nature first hand, like knowing names of plants, trees, animals and birds in the park!" Deen said.
Besides, he said it is a good time to keep away their mobile phone and interact with one another. Then enjoy food with friends outdoors for a change.
What a marvelous idea, Deen. This OKU might be physically handicapped but his mind is still alert.
All we can say is well done Deen, keep up the good work, share your ideas with whomever that seek your knowledge and assistance.
Be it in hospitals with other patients as you did last year or with school children outdoors preferably in parks where they could learn about nature first hand, putting their mobile phones away at least for a couple of hours and interact with other humans and enjoy the outdoors.
Perhaps they'll learn something about art from a talented Deen our favourite OKU.
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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