Stories in hand

I must thank former district councillor Lesile Chan who introduced me to Judy to in April, 2021. I also must thank  Leo Chu for lending us the office where Judy and the research team had several meetings and discussions. We researchers organized a drawing and writing workshop named “Let’s Carry On”. My role in the project was to design the workshop and prepare the materials. The participants were Judy’s ethnic minority clients over the past year. They didn’t know each other before the workshop, and it provided a chance for Judy and her ethnic minority clients to get to know each other, and discover faces in the community. We recruited 8 participants and prepared  “Nepalese blessing bags” with encouraging quotes and handmade animal decorations. 

 

The purpose of the workshop was to encourage participants to communicate and express their transformation during the pandemic. However, difficulty arose from the fact that the participants were strangers to each other, and spoke different languages when they communicated with me.

 

To overcome these barriers, we thought of rangoli. Judy said, some ethnic minorities' living conditions are limited, and they can’t present rangoli at home, so she suggested putting the rangoli on paper. First, one should apply glue to paper, then pour colorful sands into different zones. The work is completed when the glue dries. 

 

In the first part of the workshop, we encouraged participants to draw. They used colorful sands or pens as they wished. By filling color on the template, they showed their transformation in 2020 and 2021. In the second part of the workshop, we encouraged participants to write.They wrote feelings and experiences in 2020 and 2021, on the topics like “Who did you spend most of your time with?”, “What did you gain and lose?”, “How you meet Judy” and “Any changes after you met Judy?”.