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By Rommel C. Lontayao, Reporter
Pushed by his passion to share his talent to
children, visual artist Baldwin Kho started conducting art classes
in 1993 with only eight students at the Binondo Chinese Parish.
After 15 years, he is now one of the most
recognized children art mentors in the Tsinoy community. However, it
is not solely because of his effective teaching that produced
award-winning artworks by his students.
For Tsinoy parents, they prefer to send their
children to his art classes as he is not only an art teacher to
them. He also imparts Christian values to the young ones so that in
the future, these children can be active contributors to the society
too.
“I wanted to share my talent to the children
and teach them important values too,” said Teacher Baldwin, as he
is fondly called by his students and colleagues.
Kho’s unique teaching approach to children has
already translated to a number of award-winning artworks made by his
students in visual arts here and abroad. These include various
recognitions from Museong Pambata, The World Peace Prayer Society,
Unicef and Habitat for Humanity International.
Baldwin recently held an art exhibit featuring
some of his and his students’ artworks at the Kaisa Heritage
Center in Intramuros, Manila. The exhibit was entitled “Teacher
Baldwin: Joy of Children.” The Kaisa Heritage Center has become
the home of the annual summer children art exhibit since 2001.
The yearly exhibits, Kho said, not only showcase
the artworks of the talented Tsinoy kids, but also promote unity,
peace, and harmony among the diverse cultures and traditions of our
archipelago through children’s arts.
Some of the artworks in the exhibit can be
purchased and part of the proceeds will go to various charity and
community service projects of the Voice of Binondo and his other
charities.
Besides teaching art, Kho is actively involved
in the community, being the founding president of the Epilepsy
Awareness and Advocacy Inc. and the Voice of Binondo. He is also a
member of the Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran and an ambassador of goodwill
of the Philippine League Against Epilepsy.
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