Nine talented young refugees to showcase artworks at KLGCC

By Rosmalis Anuar

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 -- In an effort to support the refugee community in Malaysia, a non-profit social organisation, Greater Action, will hold an art exhibition involving nine talented young refugees on Nov 12 and 13 at the East Residence Clubhouse, KLGCC Bukit Kiara, here.

Greater Action co-founder Julie Das told Bernama that the exhibition aims to highlight talents of the self-taught eight Afghans and a Rohingya refugees, aged from 14 to 20, besides encouraging them to make a career or living out of their arts.

She said this exhibition, which will be Greater Action Art Gallery's first ever curated exhibition, also hoped to motivate these young artists by giving them a new platform to showcase their hard work and allowing them to freely express their emotions through their art pieces.

“The organisation is working closely with 250 families via various welfare programmes, and when I met with Laila, a 17 year old Rohingya student, I immediately recognised her exceptional talent. I promised her I would organise an exhibition one day,” she said.

Das said each of the art pieces were done using a variety of different mediums such as acrylic paints, pastel colours, water colours, lead pencils and many more.

“They've been painting for the past six months, so we'll have about 70 art pieces, some on canvas and some on paper.

“They've done this with limited supplies so we also do fundraising and try to find sponsors to help us to pay for the art materials,” she said.

Apart from the art exhibition, Greater Action has also been working on a tailoring project involving highly skilled and experienced tailors from the refugee community which created an array of unique handcrafted gift items, accessories, home linen and home decor with premium recycled fabric.

Greater Action is a non-profit social organisation operating in Malaysia focusing on improving lives and finding day-to-day solutions in education, livelihood, and healthcare for all vulnerable communities, especially refugees and asylum seekers.

Reservation for entry to the exhibition can be made via https://forms.gle/ELFBoVKzJ8FJzksy8. For more information, visit https://www.greateraction.org/ or Greater Action’s social media platforms or email to greateraction@gmail.com.

-- BERNAMA