Kids create calming artwork as a comfort to troubled keiki

Kailuhia Lam spent his Saturday morning creating a piece of art for children he will probably never meet, but the 10-year-old hopes his effort will bring them a little happiness.

He painted a beach scene onto a square canvas, using blue and brown tones to convey calmness for children who are victims of abuse or who have witnessed a crime. He filled out his piece with purple jellyfish, a patch of sand, a palm tree, a beach ball.

"I’m doing it so the foster children will look at this picture and cheer them up," he said. "It feels good."

Not all the children who visit the Children’s Justice Center, where Lam’s painting will hang, are foster children, but some do go into foster care if it is thought they are in danger in their own homes.

About 35 children like Kailuhia, ages 5 to 18, gathered at the center in Nuuanu yesterday to create paintings to revive the atmosphere and make the space more welcoming for children. The artwork will be hung around the center and remind young victims that people care about them, organizers said.

Nicole Johnson, a senior at Punahou School who spearheaded the event, took on the project because of its focus on abused children.

"I just thought it was one of the most important causes … because it’s children and they’re not in the best situation," said Johnson, 17. "Hopefully, when they leave, even if it’s just the artwork, they’ll leave feeling they’re OK, the cycle of abuse doesn’t have to continue."

"It’s really rewarding," said Johnson, who was co-chairwoman of this year’s Punahou Carnival. "It’s just kids helping kids."

The center, on Pali Highway on the second floor of a cozy house, the former home of an Episcopal bishop, provides a homelike place where child victims or witnesses can be interviewed by law enforcement officers. The center’s three interrogation rooms are designed for different age groups — preschoolers, preteens and teenagers. Each room contains age-appropriate decor and teaching tools, such as picture books that help younger children understand descriptions that are useful in prosecuting a crime.

Jasmine Mau-Mukai, statewide director of the Children’s Justice Center program, said the center opened in 1988 as one of the first of its kind in the country, which now has about 700 centers. The program, funded by the state Judiciary, has expanded to five centers around the islands and has served 21,000 children. Without such a facility, children would have to go to the police station to be interviewed and likely be intimidated, or interviewed in their homes where the abuser might be sitting nearby, she said.

Mau-Mukai came up with the idea for revitalizing the Oahu center with artwork last month while visiting a children’s center in Washington, D.C., that paid for children’s paintings to create a warmer atmosphere. Without a budget for decorations, Mau-Mukai solicited the help of Johnson, who was visiting the center with her mother, also a center volunteer, and the teenager agreed to organize the event.

The paintings, with themes of nature or the ocean, will have the artist’s first name and age beside it so the children who visit the center won’t feel alone, Mau-Mukai said.

"We can say … people care about you," she said. "A lot of times they feel like they’re the only one who’s been abused. They feel isolated, scared, ashamed."

Lyla Rosen, 13, of Kailua painted a girl diving underwater to remind the children of "just an average day, and calming and comforting, just so the kids feel better here."

Kili Agamaite painted several uhu (parrotfish).

"It seems like the painting goes faster when you think about the kids that you’re doing it for," he said. "It’s just super fun."