Faber-Castell supports art therapy by The Red Pencil in Lebanon
Alleviating suffering in Lebanon: Faber-Castell supports art therapy programme by The Red Pencil for children affected by long-term illnesses and their families
When words reach their limits, creative design can help to alleviate and heal. This is the credo of the Singapore-based humanitarian organisation The Red Pencil. It offers children affected by natural disasters, violence, serious injuries or illnesses art therapy support and thus helps them to process the trauma they have experienced. In Lebanon, The Red Pencil recently successfully completed another mission, in cooperation with the locally based non-profit organisation Myschoolpulse in Beirut.
When words reach their limits, creative design can help to alleviate and heal. This is the credo of the Singapore-based humanitarian organisation The Red Pencil. It offers children affected by natural disasters, violence, serious injuries or illnesses art therapy support and thus helps them to process the trauma they have experienced. In Lebanon, The Red Pencil recently successfully completed another mission, in cooperation with the locally based non-profit organisation Myschoolpulse in Beirut.
Myschoolpulse enables children and young people with life-threatening and long-term illnesses to continue their school education during their hospital stay and still participate in certain extracurricular activities. In recent years, Lebanon has suffered a number of conflicts which have caused economic and social instability, and the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020 and the aftermath of the Corona pandemic further exacerbated the situation - factors that added anxiety, stress and isolation for the seriously ill children Myschoolpulse cared for.
To support their work, The Red Pencil developed a new online training format that provided Myschoolpulse staff with knowledge and skills in mental health and art therapy, showing ways to deal with the children in crisis entrusted to their care. In addition, there was an art therapy programme of individual and family and group sessions for affected children and their families. The results of the humanitarian mission in Lebanon: for almost 100 participants, more than 450 online therapy courses and almost 400 individual sessions were initiated, which helped those affected to alleviate traumatic experiences with the help of creative tools and techniques.
As one of The Red Pencil's long-standing partners, Faber-Castell has also supported this mission by sponsoring it with creative teaching materials and funding: From each "Colour Grip Children of the World" set sold, 0.10 euros benefited The Red Pencil initiative.
The charity set includes double pencils with skin tones as an addition and thus allows the illustration of nuance-rich skin tones. "We are delighted that we were able to support the organisation's important humanitarian work in this way with almost 40,000 euros," says Verena Hafner, Head of Marketing International Playing & Learning and Writing at Faber-Castell.
More information on The Red Pencil at: www.redpencil.org
To support their work, The Red Pencil developed a new online training format that provided Myschoolpulse staff with knowledge and skills in mental health and art therapy, showing ways to deal with the children in crisis entrusted to their care. In addition, there was an art therapy programme of individual and family and group sessions for affected children and their families. The results of the humanitarian mission in Lebanon: for almost 100 participants, more than 450 online therapy courses and almost 400 individual sessions were initiated, which helped those affected to alleviate traumatic experiences with the help of creative tools and techniques.
As one of The Red Pencil's long-standing partners, Faber-Castell has also supported this mission by sponsoring it with creative teaching materials and funding: From each "Colour Grip Children of the World" set sold, 0.10 euros benefited The Red Pencil initiative.
The charity set includes double pencils with skin tones as an addition and thus allows the illustration of nuance-rich skin tones. "We are delighted that we were able to support the organisation's important humanitarian work in this way with almost 40,000 euros," says Verena Hafner, Head of Marketing International Playing & Learning and Writing at Faber-Castell.
More information on The Red Pencil at: www.redpencil.org
According to the motto ”Giving children a voice”, Faber-Castell supports The Red Pencil Humanitarian Mission in the implementation and financing of arts therapy missions for children who have experienced loss, trauma or crisis events. You can be part of it: with every purchase of a “Children of the world” colour pencil set you contribute 0,10 Euro to an arts therapy mission. In 2020, Faber-Castell is supporting an arts therapy project in Kathmandu, Nepal, working with children who have been abandoned or placed in children’s homes and foster care and also an arts therapy project in Kibera, Kenya, the largest urban slum in Africa, where many families live on less than a dollar a day and children often have to live with the consequences of violence, abuse, neglect and lack of access to education. Organized by The Red Pencil Humanitarian Mission, these arts therapy missions make it possible for children to find recovery from traumatic life experiences and empower them to become more resilient for the future. Do you want to know more about The Red Pencil Humanitarian Mission?
Giving pleasure: help us support The Red Pencil Humanitarian Mission!
The Red Pencil Organisation originated in Singapore. It was founded there in 2004 in response to the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean that cost more than 230,000 people their lives. For almost 20 years now, the organisation has grown constantly and has initiated and made possible relief projects all over the world.
You would like to help the Red Pencil Humanitarian Mission with a donation?
Hope for Kibera: art therapy against the crisis
Where words reach their limits, creative design can help bring relief and healing. This is the credo of Singapore-based humanitarian organisation The Red Pencil, which enables children who have been affected by natural disasters, traumatic situations in crisis regions or long hospital stays to reap the benefits of art therapy.
In September 2020, The Red Pencil launched a pilot project in the southwest of Kenya's capital, Nairobi: in Kibera, one of the largest urban slums in Africa, 500,000 people live tightly packed in simple shacks under the most adverse conditions. Extreme poverty and health problems characterise the daily lives of the residents, as do unemployment, violence and crime. This also affects many children and young people, who are often denied access to education. The outbreak of COVID-19 has exacerbated the situation in the poverty-stricken neighbourhoods and at the same time made a direct mission on the ground impossible.
However, to keep supporting the work of the locally based NGOs "The Turning Point Trust" and "Uweza Foundation" with more than 500 children and young people, The Red Pencil developed an online training programme. Its goal: to familiarise the organisations' staff – teachers, youth workers, football coaches, counsellors, mentors and educational support staff – with art therapy methods and techniques that help them cope with traumatic experiences and achieve mental health. The next step is for them to be able to pass these skills on to the children when they return to their school and group activities after the pandemic.
The feedback from the staff in Kibera has been overwhelmingly positive. They had previously been isolated in their homes for many months due to the strict COVID-19 rules and curfews in Kenya. Their joy at being allowed to try out the creative materials and use them to find new ways to express their feelings through art was heart-warming.
As a long-time partner of The Red Pencil, Faber-Castell supported this pilot project with both funding and creative teaching materials. More information about The Red Pencil at www.redpencil.org.
The Red Pencil in Kenya, Kibera: Kenya – Kibera Colours Mission
Faber-Castell aims to support artists of all ages in developing their creative capabilities and giving their own character expression when drawing. To strengthen children’s understanding of their identity and the image they have of themselves, it is important that they can portray themselves and their own individual skin colour as accurately as possible. And that is the idea behind a new creative tool: the Children of the world colour pencil set is intended for children in the important phase of growing up and finding themselves. Faber-Castell thus supports parents and teachers in the task of teaching identity and self-respect through play, encouraging the development of children's personalities and, at the same time, their creativity.
Developed by make-up experts: colour pencils in six skin tones
Every Children of the world colour pencil set contains three double-tipped pencils with six skin tones. During development, Faber-Castell made use of the company's own expertise from its cosmetic division: the leads are based on real make-up shades and have a particularly soft texture. This means it is very easy to mix the colours and young artists are given the chance to portray a whole range of different skin shades. Find out more information and useful tips on how to mix the colours here.
To ensure the little ones are ideally equipped for their creative adventure, every Children of the world set contains not only the six skin tones but also classic triangular or Colour Grip colour pencils from Faber-Castell, in wallets of between ten and 24 colours. They ensure confident and tireless drawing and writing because their ergonomic triangular form takes the pressure off small hands from the very beginning. The leads are break-resistant due to their secural bonding process and contain particularly luminous pigments – for even more brilliance on paper.
Lived corporate tradition: the Faber-Castell social charter
As a brand with tradition and a globally active family company with a long-standing culture of values, equality and cultural diversity are a matter of course for us. These values are an all-pervading part of the Faber-Castell community: since March 2000, the Faber-Castell social charter has applied to all international corporate sites. It includes a clear ban on discrimination of any kind and categorically advocates equal treatment, regardless of skin colour, gender, religion, race, nationality. An independent committee monitors adherence to the agreement at regular intervals.
Journey round the world: painting templates for small artists
Children discover the world when they draw. Pictures are often a way of expressing what troubles them and are a way of processing what they have been through. At the same time, in the early years of childhood, children develop both motor skills and their imagination, and successful pictures and paintings help increase their self-confidence.
Our drawing templates take children to far-off continents and invite them to discover the cultural diversity of the planet. You will find them here with some short stories about children from all over the world.
