Therapeutic Graffiti

This evening I went to one of the Wonderspouse's Year Zero Writers events - an evening of readings at the OVADA Gallery in Oxford.

The Gallery is currently exhibiting work by young people from Oxford, all of whom are young carers - i.e. they look after someone at home who has a mental or physical disability, alcohol or drug problem, or long term illness.

These pictures, created with spray cans, were all done by children aged between 8 and 13 who care for an adult at home. More information about the project as a whole can be found here.

Sadly, most of the work done by such children goes unrecognized. Worse still, most of these children are also bullied at school - so they spend miserable daytimes being bullied and then have to go home to goodness knows what.

Makes me think how worthwhile projects like this are.

And also makes me think that people who complain about "the youth of today" aren't really thinking what they're saying a lot of the time.