I met her at a fair. She is a day-dreaming person and invites passers-by to choose an angel, either painted or made of plaster, so that she can decipher its meaning. The story of these angels intrigued me, so I wanted to learn it. So Miki (Pereanu) Ciobotaru told me the story of a million angels: This project is about understanding something very simple and handy for everyone, but which we tend to forget just as simply and easily: namely that we can be good full time, every day, not just on a holiday schedule, and that love and acceptance are the first form of therapy. We dont need to read lots of books about love and acceptance to be able to give them to children with autism. In this project I create one million graphic and ceramic angels, as an artistic and visual manifesto against the discrimination of these children and their families.
I asked Miki Ciobotaru about the impact of the project: It’s a really transformative process for me and for those I interact with, because, as I was saying, it’s about simple, natural things, it’s about love, it’s about acceptance and often we take them for granted and don’t realize how valuable they are in the lives of each of us. My angels are meant to always be chosen by those people who really need them and who need their message, their role. And at a symbolic level, each of these children comes with a certain message in our lives, whether it is a lesson or a blessing. And we just need to have a little patience to listen to it.
How did the project start. Here is the project creator Miki Ciobotaru with details: The project of a million angels came in stages. The first stage was sometime in 2019, so before the pandemic, when I wanted to give my birthday away, because probably this is also my own lesson, which I am still learning, I am much happier to be able to give than to receive. At that time, I created a charity workshop, a workshop in which those who had the pleasure to participate, had to make a donation instead of bringing me a present for my birthday, a donation to be used for the creation of a playground for children with special needs. And this playground was created in the village of Piscu, some 30 kilometers away from Bucharest, being the first of its kind in the entire Bucharest area and Ilfov county. Later, as I had been working in the field of volunteering for a very long time, I also interacted with parents and children from special categories and realized how much they needed to be listened to, to be understood and to be accepted just as they are. Because there is nothing wrong with them, it is just the carelessness or lack of information of people who tend to reject anything that is different from them, at first. I chose this motif of the angel, because, in my vision, these children are also angels and remind us of how much we need to accept each other and find a place under the sun for everyone. So, after a break of lockdown, pandemics and uncertainties, I managed to create 5,284 angels and I hope to be able to continue in the future, until I reach one million angels for this cause.
Once created, angels can be purchased. There is no price as such, but rather a donation suggestion, half of the money received being donated and the other half contributing to the continuation of the project.
Next Miki Ciobotaru tells us more: As an impact, we want to manage to bring to light a normality of special children. To be able to gather a community of people that should create a space where they can develop, to have more day-care centers where these children can go. We want the parents to be understood and helped, because, unfortunately, in Romania, there is not much support or much interest at least for the categories of children with special needs. And I’m not talking about autism alone, but about the whole spectrum of children with special needs. Each and everyone of us or together, we should create an inclusive society in which these children should find their place under the sun and feel loved and accepted.
Sheer inspiration is the ingredient for making the angels, but an in-depth study of the specifics of each of them is also needed, Miki Ciobotaru confessed: I work with angelic archetypes. There is a science that studies angels. It is called angelology and I am studying it with great interest and curiosity. The book of Enoch, which has actually 3 volumes, first presents more than 700 angels by name and role. In the process of creation, I let my hands work and I see later which angel materialized. Also, those who interact with the angels choose them instinctively, with their soul. And I try to make each angel reach exactly the person who needed it or who, in one way or another, resonated with the angel and called it into his or her life.
Miki Ciobotarus project was created with and out of love, with the hope that we can be inclusive, we can be a little more patient with ourselves and those around us every day. (LS)
