Shanghai Children’s Home residents got a special lesson yesterday fromSarit Shay, an artist from Haifa in Israel who came to their class for a painting tutorial.

The home is the only welfare institution in the citydedicated to orphans aged under 18.

The 12 children who attended the class were all mentally or physically handicapped, some of them abandoned by their parents as infants.

Shay, a Chinese culture expert, did her master’s degree in Chinese Studies at University of Haifa and first visited China five years ago. She now knows China well enough to even help out people at Metro stations.

Under a joint effort by the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau and the Israeli consulate in Shanghai, Shay first came to the children’s home in September.

“I like children for their innocence and purity. I don’t have a child, these kids here have no parents, but I’m willing to give them as much love as I can,” she said.

During the tutorial, Shay taught the children how to draw a mouse, not the ordinary kind but a mouse with a humanbody. Shay said that as next year is the Year of the Mouse, she selected the mouse as it represents the near future.

“Something for the kids to look forward to,” she said.

All the children were thrilled about all the crayons with different colors Shay had brought along and her interesting stories.

Shay said she is planning to work with University of Haifa to launch an exchange program that allows Israeli students to study in Shanghai.

“If the program finally works out, I’ll make sure the exchange students volunteer here at least once a month.”