War in the eyes of a child by Michelle Hopkins

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This beautiful, moving, yet disturbing image is one in a series of oil paintings on exhibit now at Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church.

"In the past 18 years, the army in Uganda has enslaved over 20,000 children," says artist Helen Broadfoot. "The use of child soldiers is common around the world."

Broadfoot's War Child Gallery was born out of one mother's painful discovery of the daily, worldwide atrocities against children in the name of war and conflict.

"It started over a year ago with the Iraq war," says Broadfoot. "I found it so upsetting, so many casualties, or as President Bush called them, necessary collateral damage, most of them children and women. I felt I had to do something... I just wasn't sure what."

Offended by Bush and sickened by visions of dying babies and children, but not knowing what to do, Broadfoot e-mailed renowned U.S. linguistics professor, author and lecturer Noam Chomsky. She asked the humanitarian what a "mere Canadian artist" could do to highlight the atrocities of the world.

"I told him I wanted to paint the 10 great lies that have harmed humanity, and asked him what they were," she explained during a telephone interview from her Pender Harbour home. "He actually e-mailed me back with these words: 'You know far better than I that any creative artist needs confidence, more than anything else. And that can only come from within.'"

http://www.oilpaintingforpeace.com/