Painting the Future

How do you get a few wealthy people in Toronto to build a well halfway across the world in Rwanda, Africa? You bring the problem home to them – in the form of a painting that looks much like one their own child would create.

The idea of The Watercolour Project was to show the power of well water and how it can transform the future of a community. We used actual well water as media to fund the creation of another well.

Using well water from their newly built well, the children of Gashoro, Rwanda created watercolour paintings. The works depicted the children’s future dreams and aspirations now made possible through well water.

The work found a way to be positive, in an often negative category. The children’s watercolour paintings sparked donations to pay for another well entirely.

Stage One: Connecting with Children.

The execution had two parts: first, the activation. The very people affected by lack of clean water were part of the solution. The children of Gashoro, Rwanda used water from a newly built well in their community to create watercolour paintings. The works depicted the children’s future dreams and aspirations now made possible through well water. They painted themselves as doctors, pilots, teachers and builders. Then those same kids donated their paintings back to the cause.

Stage Two: Connecting with donors.

The second part was the event. On March 22, World Water Day, their works were hung for sale at LUMAS Gallery, Toronto. The paintings were then sold, which in turn generated enough funds to build an entirely new well in a neighbouring Rwandan community.

From Africa to North America and back, these children’s hopes, dreams and aspirations touched the lives of donors.

Our goals were to provide clean drinking water to another village through a well, and, with the help of the children in Rwanda, we did.

- 10 paintings sold in the gallery raising over $17,500

- for a 1.5 hour event, enough money was raised to pay for and build a new well

- in one evening, 3,000 Rwandan families’ lives changed and their village was transformed

- 4 new children were sponsored by donors the night of the event

- 85 new people were exposed to the World Vision brand

- 8.6 million impressions were generated

- traffic is up 33% on WorldVision.ca

- new users are up 27%

- donations made directly to World Vision Water Projects are up 393%