Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Colors and Smiles: Paving Happiness Through Creative Charity

Raising money to build playgrounds for children across Egypt and Africa – the photographers' way.

Staff Writer

Colors and Smiles: Paving Happiness Through Creative Charity

Art has often had the unmistakable mission of reaching out to the masses for specific reasons; sometimes it’s to make us happy, pensive, angry or merely to make us feel. Currently, art has helped tremendously in reaching out to audiences in order to bring a change where change is needed, as seen by the infamous Humans of New York page. Similarly, photographers all over the world are trying to extend their works and pictures in order to help those less fortunate.Two local photographers, Ashraf Elmahrouky and Samo Rera, will be setting up an exhibition of their photos from Egypt, Kenya, France, and Italy at the Shelter Art and Photography Gallery (at the Yamama Centre in Zamalek), which features captivating images of children, scenes of vivid colours and happiness, as well as landscape photography. The pictures will be available for purchase, with revenues going towards their initiative, U Smile I Smile, which is dedicated to building playgrounds out of recyclable materials for children in impoverished areas in Egypt and beyond.

"The idea came to us as a matter of charity, to build playgrounds for children in Africa and Egypt," Rera says. "It’s for kids who have never played in their life." At the moment, their primary goal is to raise enough money for a playground in Nubia. The exhibition, ongoing for two weeks starting May 8th, is an incredible chance to see how anyone with any given talent can put their skills to use and do something for the good of the world - one smile at a time.

Check out the U Smile I Smile initiative on Facebook and Instagram.