A dream that becomes reality

The project takes place at the Burlo Garofolo Children’s Hospital in Trieste and provides artistic workshops to stimulate the young patients to imagine and create a fantastic character that keeps them company in the hospital. After having undergone surgery, it is not always easy for children to express their experience and feelings, which change from one day to the next. Often, only drawing and art enable them not only to give voice to their imagination but also to express through colors and graphics their emotions and thoughts.

Volunteers and staff of A.B.C. invite the patients to create and design a character (an object, a creature, an animal – anything they like) that accompanies them during hospitalization. Once the drawing is done and a story has been invented for these fantastic creatures (a way to enable the young patients to get in touch with their feelings), a group of volunteers makes their imaginary character real and three-dimensional in a little sewing and artisanal laboratory. Thus the children’s drawings become real objects (made of cloth, wood and cardboard), making thoughts real and desires tangible.

In order to carry out this creative project, A.B.C. intends to implement a “children’s ward” equipped with materials and equipment (for example, pencils, pens, water colors and tablets for games, videos and audio-books).