The Paintings for Charity art auction, now in its third year, was the brainchild of April ‘Josh’ Jonel Rojas, a Kajonkiet art teacher hailing from the Philippines.
“About three years ago, I was visiting an orphanage with a friend and I was so saddened. I wanted to do something to help.
“I didn't have money to give these children myself, so I came up with this idea of an art auction to gather donations,” he recounts.
For the art auction, pieces created by his students are auctioned off to parents of the school’s students.
“When I first proposed this idea to the director of my department, he said that he didn’t have the budget to cover the cost of the utensils, paints and canvases.
“But after the auction, he said that he was proud of the children and glad to see the parents so happy. One parent even spent B15,000 on a single painting.”
Money that year was donated to the Holland House Foundation, the orphanage that had inspired him to launch the programme.
He told The Phuket News that he hopes that the Kajonkietsuksa Art Auction will hopefully inspire other schools to launch similar charitable programmes.
“I hope we have inspired ordinary people like me that they can do something extraordinary for the less fortunate.”