TEHRAN – The 15th edition of a children’s painting exhibition, which is organized annually by the Mahak Charity Society, opened online on Friday.

This year’s exhibition has turned its spotlight on COVID-19 with the motto of “Corona, a Common Enemy”, the organizers announced.

Works by 56 young artists will be on view on the website of the Mahak Charity Society, a Tehran-based major medical center for children with cancer, for a week. The exhibition can be found http://mhak.ir/onlinegallery.  

The artist children have been taught by Tara Behbahani, an art teacher who has been a major contributor to the charity exhibition over the past 15 years.

“56 children have come together in this exhibition to fight against cancer and COVID-19 by presenting their perceptions of the horrible coronavirus to raise funds for children with cancer,” she said in a press release.  

“Purchasing the artworks, which is carried out in a symbolic form, causes their love for humankind, and is institutionalized in their lives and encourages them to take their next steps firmly in this field,” she added.   

“Fighting the crisis of COVID-19 and the quarantine are the experiences the majority of us have had over the past two years,” Behbahani noted.

“We suffered disability, weakness, desperation and answerless questions caused by the disease, however, by coronavirus we learned how an unknown illness can affect our lives. Fighting an unknown illness is always going on within those families that have a child with cancer. They always live all their days and nights with anxiety,” she added.

She called COVID-19 and cancer two common enemies of people, and said, “Collaboration is an absolute necessity to defeat COVID as children with cancer can recover from the illness with help from benevolent people.”

Photo: A painting by Melina Esfandiari is on view at the 15th edition of a children’s painting exhibition, which is organized annually by the Mahak Charity Society.

MMS/YAW