La fleur dans les ruines, painting by Claudia at age 10

Background Story by Milla (The Olive Branch editor)

This painting was created by my mother during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). She was 10 years old, living in Beirut, when she drew herself watering a flower growing out of the ruins of her destroyed home. Decades later, when my father searched her name online while they were dating, he found that this drawing had once won a UNESCO prize. That discovery led her to track it down in her father’s house in Beirut. It now hangs in our home.

The painting is titled Les fleurs qui poussent dans les ruines de ma maison.

Below is the text that originally accompanied it in the UNESCO exhibition catalogue.

UNESCO catalogue

« Dessin d'une fille de 10 ans. Le dessin représente une fille, debout au milieu d'une maison détruite. Entre les pierres entassées en désordre, une fleur à plusieurs tiges a réussi à pousser. Elle est bien fanée, la fleur. Mais la fillette tient un tuyau d'arrosage un peu percé, mais dont le jet la fera s'épanouir à nouveau. La reconstruction, l'espoir sont là. Ce dessin a servi d'emblème à l'exposition de l'ensemble des dessins à l'UNESCO en 1999. »

English Translation:
“Drawing by a 10-year-old girl. The drawing shows a girl standing in the middle of a destroyed house. Between the piles of scattered stones, a flower with several stems has managed to grow. It is very wilted, the flower. But the little girl holds a slightly leaky hose, and its spray will make the flower bloom again. Reconstruction and hope are already there. This drawing served as the emblem for the UNESCO exhibition of children’s drawings in 1999.”