![](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/QFNV2WIBYEJQ3M6QLJJKXICNNE.jpg?auth=5d55b14cfb119ceaa2f29a2a1a21c0540f6f084ebacf93336363a351030fb86a&width=16&height=3&quality=70&smart=true)
What was meant to be a trip to paint murals at a Filipino orphanage also became unexpected form of therapy thanks to a Tauranga grandmother.
Artist Julie McGowan spent two weeks in the Philippines, helping brighten the walls of a children's orphanage in Mindoro. The murals join others McGowan has done during previous trips to the impoverished nation.
McGowan operates under the Ruel Foundation - an accredited charity which runs the orphanage and can process children for international and local adoptions. She holds a Masters in Art.
This was McGowan's third trip to the orphanage but the first time she began painting with the children, encountering some of the trauma they have lived through.