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The Ewa’a Shelters of the UAE have provided sanctuary and safety to victims of human trafficking. And an exhibition of artwork, organised by Ewa’a and now in its fourth year, has provided those women with a creative outlet and a means to raise funds.
Twenty-four women from three Ewa’a Shelters, in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, have worked together with the UAE-based artist Jennifer Simon to produce more than 80 artworks that express individual stories for ‘Silent Voices IV’. The centrepiece of this year’s exhibition, put on by Ewa’a and Abu Dhabi Music &
Arts Foundation, is a set of ten human-sized fibreglass bowling pins with a bowling ball – all decorated by trafficking victims to represent the women who hail from different parts of the world. Artist Simon says the women are noticeably changed after the experience: “It’s amazing, the transformations these women go through, doing the art – you see a physical and emotional change, I think it’s therapeutic”.
“Most of the women will stay until they’re back on their feet, but for example one case, we still have the girl because she’s a minor – the traffickers were her parents. So she’s in our care until she’s old enough to decide for herself”.
Ewa’a supervisor Yousra Kaddoura walked 7DAYS through some of the art.
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