A man, a plan, a canal...

…Panama!*

Earlier this year, Drawnalism were invited to draw at the Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action in Panama City.

The ACPHA (or the Alliance for short) is a organisation of numerous NGOs and other agencies with a focus on protecting children in war zones, refugee camps, climate shocks and other such situations. We’ve covered their meetings since 2020 remotely via our On the Air service, but this would be the first one held in-person since before the pandemic, and our first chance to meet the organisers and presenters face-to-face.

This year’s event focused on protecting children in conflict and crises, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. So, Panama City, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Atlantic and North America meets South America, felt like an appropriate place for this event.

The conference was held at the Panama Convention Center, in the former US-controlled Canal Zone, on reclaimed land comprising soil dug up from the construction of the canal.

Artwork being shown in Spanish and English on the big screens

One additional challenge this year was that the event was being held in both English and Spanish, and some of the artwork was translated from English to Spanish during and after the event. Drawing digitally makes this a simpler task, as we can make changes and alterations quickly and cleanly, based on a supplied translation.

There’s a selection of our artwork below, but you can see all of it on the ACPHA website here.

We’re currently working on another big project for ACPHA, so more news on that when we have it!

*sorry, couldn’t resist one of my favourite palindromes.