Photo/Illutration A greeting card designed by Yoshitomo Nara to support refugees ((c) Yoshitomo Nara 2019)

Yoshitomo Nara, an artist known globally for his paintings of girls staring with their large eyes, wants people to think of refugees as individuals, not as groups or numbers.

He designed a greeting card to support refugees based on his interactions with people who have fled war-torn Syria. The card features a girl at a refugee camp staring straight ahead along with the message: “Think about a refugee.”

“One should imagine a refugee as someone’s family member or a certain individual, not just as a statistic,” Nara said.

In March, Nara spent a week visiting two camps in Jordan for Syrians as well as others who escaped violence and made it to Amman. He was invited by a nonprofit group called the Japan Platform (JPF), which comprises 43 Japanese nongovernmental organizations.

He had meals with a Syrian family and listened to the experiences of a woman who was separated from her husband because of the civil war.

Hailing from Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Nara showed slides of his hometown and artwork at the refugee camps.

The displaced children were amused by pictures of a cloth diaper he used in childhood and the snow-covered countryside, according to Nara.

After he examined the children’s paintings and heard why they had drawn them, Nara said he felt “a spiritual strength from the children who are surviving the present with all their might.”

The greeting card was released as part of the Think about a Refugee campaign, which aims to gain broader assistance for Syrian refugees before the coldest months of winter.

Registered JPF supporters who offer at least 1,000 yen ($9.19) a month in donations can receive a pair of cards. The campaign for the limited supply of cards will continue through Feb. 29.

“We would like recipients to send their second cards to their beloved ones so that Nara’s message can be shared among more people,” a JPF representative said.

For more information, visit the JPF website at: (https://www.japanplatform.or/).