Eesra, 11, is a Syrian girl who fled the war with her family.
Eesra was only 4 when she arrived in Amman, Jordan. After leaving her life in Syria behind, things started to normalise: it was easy for her to make new friends. “I’m really happy to have moved to another country… even though Syria is my country, and I will always love it,” she says.
I draw, I draw, with my heart open to every human - beating with love, beating with tenderness. I draw, I draw, a garden blessed with many flowers - every time prettier. I draw, I draw a tree so green - dense, tall and lean. I draw, I draw with every color that there is - I am painting all of my dreams - I draw them with love, I draw them with peace... [extract of a poem written by Eesra]
Eesra loves drawing and she learnt how to paint while participating in the “Happy Walls” initiative. Over the summer, she joined other Syrian and Jordanian classmates to decorate the walls of their school with colourful painted murals. One of them is actually a portrait of Eesra herself. “Honestly, when I get to school, seeing my picture gives me a nice feeling. Every morning when I arrive, I wave and greet the ‘other me’ in the picture. I like that!” Eesra says with a smile on her face.
Besides refining her drawing techniques, she learnt the importance of helping people: “I don’t enjoy drawing on my own as much. What I like is us having fun while we draw and we learn new things together,” she says. “For example, one friend could be showing me how to draw a girl and I could show her how to draw a house. So, in that way, we would help each other out… we would become like fingers on one hand. This is why I like it a lot when we help each other out.”
Eesra is an artist at heart. She dreams of becoming a professional illustrator.
