Irish Author reflects on working with a Tunisian orphanage

During an appearance on the Irish TV show Down to Business, the author Eoin Colfer reflected on what he learnt whilst working with a Tunisian orphanage, reports The Irish Independent on September 19.

Eoin Colfer penned the famous Artemis Fowl, the bestselling series, which has sold 25 million copies worldwide. Yet before becoming an author, Colfer and his wife travelled and worked across the world in places like Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

When reflecting upon his time abroad, Colfer recalled: “My wife Jackie and I were teaching over there in a British gas school, and we were doing some work with this local orphanage. It was called a psychotic farm.”

“It was where they gave children who were living on the street and having psychotic episodes, animals to look after. Children who had real mental health issues were given an animal to mind. And the effect on them was amazing.”

This period of Colfer’s life came to inspire his first book, published in 1998, and titled Benny and Omar, about a boy who travels from Wexford – Colfer’s hometown in Ireland’s southwest – to Tunisia.

Colfer also commented upon how his childhood came to shape his love for storytelling, stating: “My mam and dad were great storytellers. Back in the day when we would drive around the country in our Renault 4, with five boys in the back, there were no audiobooks, so mam and dad would just make up stories.”

Colfer’s memories are a reminder of Tunisia’s impressive power to inspire creatives and the rest of the world’s fascination with Tunisia’s art. Currently, the Tunisian artist Ahmed Laroussi is holding a solo exhibition in South Korea, which speaks to the value of Tunisian creativity on a global scale.

Tunisian films have also been nominated for awards this year, with The Voice of Hind Rajab being nominated for an Oscar, whilst Tunisia has ranked one out of fifteen countries to have a nominated film accepted at the Kaduna Film Festival.