DUBAI: Model and philanthropist Elisa Sednaoui has teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah Biennale on “Winter Camp,” an eight-day-long educational arts program tailored for children aged 4-13. The program was designed exclusively by the Egyptian-Italian-French model and humanitarian’s social enterprise Funtasia for the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, which is currently underway in Riyadh’s Jax district until March.
The workshops, which are taught in English and Arabic, are led by six facilitators hailing from Mexico, the US, Egypt, Egypt and Italy.
During “Winter Camp,” children will get the opportunity to learn about various art tools, discover self-expression and communication and teamwork skills through artistic, hands-on activities and games.
“What a gift it is to see these images coming from the third day of our Funtasia camp at the Diriyah Biennale in Saudi,” wrote the 34-year-old on Instagram Stories, re-posting a clip of a group of children doing arts and crafts during the initiative.
“Couldn’t be prouder of the Egyptian, Italian and Mexican Funtasia facilitators who are there now delivering this FUNtastic experience for children from four to 13-years-old,” she added.
Sednaoui founded Funtasia, a non-profit social enterprise based in Luxor, in 2014.
Funtasia creates grassroots programs for children and young adults to help foster compassionate innovators.
Today, it operates in more than 15 different locations in public schools in Italy and Egypt. Funtasia has supported more than 5,900 children and trained more than 700 adults in both countries, according to the organization’s website.
The Italy-born beauty, who spent much of her childhood in Egypt, is a staunch advocate of education, and is on a constant quest to raise awareness and funds for different programs benefiting underprivileged women and children through her non-profit.
Just recently, Sednaoui teamed up with Italian clothing store Spazio Bra on a range of limited-edition black and white T-shirts that saw 100 percent of the proceeds go to Funtasia education programs in Italy and around the world.
Meanwhile, in 2020, the model and philanthropist launched a new collaboration with France-based accessories label Josefina that featured leather carryalls, pouches, backpacks and accessories handcrafted by artisans in Spain. All the profits from that collaboration also went toward Funtasia.