“Sang Sangai” Mothers and Daughters Painting Training

World Education International partnered with Janakpur Women’s Development Center to provide training in Mithila painting to 500 mothers and daughters in Rautahat, Sarlahi, Dhanusa and Mahottari districts. The “Sang Sangai” (Learning Together) project brought mothers and daughters together so that they could share learning through art. As many mothers already had made traditional art on the walls of their homes, the project engaged mothers to further develop their skills and through art increase their engagement with girls’ education. Roopshree Joshi, Program Coordinator at World Education International, divided the 500 participants into several groups in different geographical locations. Master artists from the JWDC provided training in four phases. In the first phase, artists taught mothers and daughters to make many colors starting with the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow). In the second phase, the master artists taught how to make simple line drawings of fish and animals. In the third phase, they taught the participants to fill their drawings with color. In the final phase, 81 mothers and daughters were invited to the Janakpur Women’s Development Center where they freely made paintings using what they had learned in the previous three phases of training. The project was designed especially to empower Muslim and Dalit women who have relatively little access to skills training.