This two-day art workshop took place in May 2019 and was led by Charity Atukunda, a visual artist from Kampala, in collaboration with Virginie Tallio from Makerere University.

Twelve young people living as urban refugees were brought to the workshop by InterAid. These young people had originally come from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Rwanda and South Sudan and they were all artists. Charity used the workshop to introduce them to new artistic techniques.  

Over the two days, the young people explored the use of charcoal for sketching and experimented with watercolours, drawing the futures they visualised for themselves.

The art was combined with discussions about the young people’s experiences of accessing education after they arrived in Uganda. Their discussions explored the challenges they faced in accessing formal and informal schooling in the country. 

A small-scale exhibition of art-work created by the young people during the workshop, as well as artwork they had created at home, was presented to an audience of practitioners and policy-makers.