Creating beauty in the midst of destruction

British artist/activist Arofish paints stencil graffiti art in combat zones- Baghdad, Palestine and most recently, Lebanon. While he was in Dahyeh, a badly-damaged area of Beirut, he was asked by locals to paint something happy to reflect the spirit of the community. He came up with these stencil graffiti works of children flying kites.

The arabic text reads:
"When Ramallah, in Palestine, is put under curfew by the Israeli Army, nobody goes outside for days. The streets look completely deserted. But from a tall building, if you look out over the city, you can sometimes see hundreds of many-coloured kites, flown from the roof-terraces by the children of Ramallah. The children you can see here are flying kites to celebrate the spirit of the people of Dahyeh. Some kites you can see are flying away. These are for the children who are no longer here; they are no longer held down to the Earth".

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