Many thanks to Mohammad Moshiur Rahman, Assistant Manager--Advocacy, and Mohammad Rofiqul Islam, Senior Officer--Training and Counseling, Bandhu Social Welfare Society, Dhaka, Bangladesh, for allowing me to work with the HIM and MSM community members of the organization.

Bandhu Social Welfare Society started its journey in 1996. It is registered with the Social Welfare Ministry of Bangladesh and the NGO Affairs Bureau. Its increasing role is in addressing human rights and other emergent needs of sexual minority communities by creating national, regional, and international forums, networks, and alliances. I collaborated with them for a one-day artmaking workshop focusing on providing information and introducing creative healing through drawing and puppet making.

For the session, I directed the participants to concentrate on ‘happiness’ and what it meant for them. They are, on several occasions, called out with offensive names because of their sexual orientation. Even in liberal countries like Bangladesh, they keep their identities camouflaged and masked from society. 

The work produced by the participants gave me an insight into their true identities, also bearing witness to their individualities and what they wanted from the society, i.e., ‘acceptance’. The second exercise focused on closed connections. The participants had a hard time having eye contact with the general public. They all were grouped in pairs. Transparencies were used to draw the contours of the partner sitting in front of another. The task was reversed. The result depicted the person's concentration level towards understanding their partner and building a connection with them. Both the sketches were placed next to each other. 

In the end, all the participants smiled and were surprised to witness their artistic abilities. The drawings became their inner voices, as they perceived their realities for the first time. They were content with their work and stunned to see how connections could be made so creatively.

** Due to the privacy of the space and clients, photography was not allowed; hence no workshop images are displayed.