This week the Texan-French Alliance for the Arts (TFAA) team had the amazing opportunity to volunteer at the AIDS Foundation Houston’s Camp Hope, a summer camp for children who are HIV-positive, hosted at the Camp For All campus. Seeing the children in this joyous environment, playing without care, was a profound experience. Although we were there to teach them arts and crafts activities, we found ourselves learning from their strength and courageous attitude. We worked together with them to create precious keepsakes of the camp experience, treating them to traditional French crepes with jam at the end of the day.
To see children who are not only seriously ill, but ill with a tremendously stigmatized disease, playing, being sassy, running, jumping, and forgetting their worries gave us faith in the strength of the human spirit. Sharing with them the idea that there are no mistakes in art, and that a “mistake” only creates a new opportunity to explore was an amazing chance for us to inspire them as they inspired us. We feel incredibly grateful to the generous staff and volunteers of AIDS Foundation Houston, Camp Hope, Camp For All and the campers for allowing us to share our love and teach them how to express love through art and creativity.
A purse made from trash bags and duct tape, decorated by a camper, and the TFAA team.
