Healing and Education Through the Arts (HEART)

Save the Children's HEART program uses the arts to promote children's development and well-being by providing them with a creative means of expression.

The program is targeted to children living in countries and communities affected by conflict, violence, HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty. Children, some so young they don't yet have the language skills, learn how to use the arts to give voice to their emotions about difficult events in their everyday lives. This is critical to helping children cope, and putting them on a path to reach their full potential in life.

By working with local partners, Save the Children seeks to integrate HEART into its emergency response work, as well as its education and early childhood development programs so that the programs can continue for years to come.

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Program Piloted in Mozambique, West Bank and El Salvador

Through funding from the Charles Engelhard Foundation, HEART was piloted in 2006 in Mozambique and the West Bank. HEART programming was launched in El Salvador in 2008.

A Mozambican preschool boy learns painting, drawing and other art activities through a Save the Children-supported program that helps children affected by HIV/AIDS cope. Photo credit: Dominique Bovens

Mozambique: Art activities in Mozambique take place in our community-based preschools, called escolinhas, in rural Mozambique where HIV/AIDS has taken a huge toll on children and their families.

Save the Children partnered with graduates of the School of Visual Arts in Maputo and Associação Mwana, an early childhood development resource organization.

Teachers from eight escolinhas were trained to promote children's development in an interactive way through the use of creative teaching and learning materials. The program uses locally available resources like charcoal, sisal and colorau seeds to make paint, paint brushes and other art materials.

In early 2010, applying lessons learned from the start of the project and with funding from the ELMA Foundation and FOX television's 2007 Idol Gives Back charity special, Save the Children expanded the use of innovative art activities by training more than 140 teachers from 30 additional escolinhas. This spring, these escolinhas held "art days" for their communities, which gave children and their teachers the opportunity to share their art activities with community members, parents and grandparents. The program's latest effort includes designing storybooks based on local stories.

12-year-old Zahara lost her mother in the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. Through art and other programs focused on the needs of children in emergency situations, Save the Children helped Zahara begin to recover from her tragic loss.

Read blog entries by two preschool teachers, Veronica and Monica, about how HEART is helping their students.

West Bank: Psychologists, social workers and school counselors from several local organizations were trained by Save the Children to carry out visual art activities for children in communities affected by conflict. The program engages mothers, too, so that children can continue their art activities at home with their family.

El Salvador: Save the Children partnered with a local organization, Fundación Llort, to design visual art activities for children and youth in communities affected by gang violence and extreme poverty. The program combines instruction on art with discussions of topics that help them cope, allowing children to produce art while reflecting on their lives and communities.