Dubai: Children from the Dubai Centre for Special Needs have painted a 40-metre wide mural on a construction site board to brighten up the community.
The project, which was sponsored by the AMBB construction company, was created by around 60 students who study at the not-for-profit centre. The children taking part had disorders such as autism, Down’s syndrome and impaired hearing.
The colourful portrait combined the Dubai skyline that included some of Dubai’s most popular landmarks such as the Burj Khalifa and the Burj Al Arab with images of everything food related, ranging from a jar of jam, cupcakes to an eggplant.
The project took four weeks to complete and the 30 boards used for the mural were brought separately to the school because some of the students use wheelchairs and cannot go on sand.
“It is the first time that students have worked on a project for the public or even this big. Painting the mural gave them the opportunity to explore using larger tools and larger space from the usual A4 paper. It also taught them how to mix colours,” said Toma Gabor, art teacher at Dubai Centre for Special Needs.
Gabor added that painting the mural was also therapeutic for the children because they got to express themselves freely.
One of the students who took part in the mural, Fahreen Abid, 16, is hearing impaired and uses sign language, signed she really enjoyed the activity and that her favourite food is chocolate cake and anything sweet.
“I painted hamburgers, chicken, eggs and mangos, because mangos are good,” said Abid.
Maha Sahbi, 18, who has Down’s syndrome, painted cupcakes, “because they are my favourite,” she added.
Louise Wick, Group Managing Partner at AMBB, said that the idea behind the painting came from a sponsor and the reason for the Dubai-food theme was because the facility being constructed is related to food.
The bright art work is parallel to Shaikh Zayed Road and it is hoped that the project will raise awareness about the centre.
