A school for children with special needs in Spain was decorated with a mural about happiness and inclusiveness.
In Puerto de la Cruz, the artist RoRo has painted the Inés Fuentes Center for Special Education, creating bright drawings of happy children to highlight the value of inclusion and support.
We live in a world where differences are not a problem, but a value. It is important to explain this to children from an early age so that they grow up sensitive, respect others, and are tolerant.
This is exactly what they do at the Inés Fuentes y González de Aledo Special Education Center in Puerto de la Cruz. There, children are compared to butterflies: some fly higher, and some fly as they can, but everyone is happy.
The artist Roberto Rodríguez, known as RoRo, helped convey this on the facade of the center. He is involved in a project where he paints schools and neighborhoods in need of support and communicates with locals to make life better.
Last year, mothers saw his work in schools in Los Realejos and invited him to their place. The center's management liked the idea, and the project was launched.
CEIP Inés Fuentes y González de Aledo is a small but important center that educates 50 children aged 3 to 21 from different towns.
RoRo immediately agreed, but asked to first meet the students and their families. He spent a whole day with them, listening to their stories and seeing how well the teachers treat the children. Most importantly, he saw that the children were happy.
The artist was delighted and decided to create something special for these children, who find it difficult to communicate, but they do it in their own way. "They are just like everyone else, it's just a little harder for them. But they are happy to go to school, to their teachers and friends, to the people who care about them," says RoRo.
He captured his impressions on the walls of the building. There you can see smiling and happy children, each of whom is special. RoRo says that it was not easy to depict disability, but he did it with the help of details that are not immediately noticeable. "I wanted to show that in their hearts they are the same as everyone else, they just communicate or express themselves differently," the artist explains.
He painted from Monday to Saturday to be in time for the start of the school year. Locals came every evening to support him.
At the bar where he drank coffee, he was known as "the guy who paints Inés Fuentes." Thanks to RoRo's paintings, this area has become brighter and has drawn attention to an important cause.