…hosted by Human Services Ministry, Margaret Clemons Foundation
THE Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, in partnership with the Margaret Clemons Foundation (MCF), on August 11 last, hosted a photography workshop for 15 children, ages 11 to 17, and two artists, under the project theme name ‘WITNESS’. Attending the workshop at the Cara Lodge, also, was country coordinator from the Childcare and Protection Agency, Help and Shelter, Varqa Foundation and the Greater Georgetown community. Also in attendance as observers were Karla Daniels, Vice Consul U.S. Embassy; Dhanmattie Sohai, USAID; Margaret Kertzious, Director, Help and Shelter; and Shirley Ferguson, Childcare and Protection Agency. MCF’s programming includes a train the trainer component.
The programme’s primary objective is to draw attention to and spark conversation about the effects of adult human behaviour, particularly gender-based, and child directed violence on society’s most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses, our children. The project is part of the global photography project by the French artist JR, called “Inside Out”. MCF provided each of the 18 participants with point and shoot cameras, memory cards, journals and photography books.
The workshop included basic photography instruction by Alysia Christiani, the New York based Guyanese American and Studio Manager at Sesame Workshop. Christiani volunteered her time to travel to Guyana, on behalf of MCF, to deliver the workshop, and is the WITNESS Project Manager.
The children were separated into groups of three and presented with various logistical and mechanical obstacles to overcome. With only two weeks to take a number of very specific photographs, obtain signed releases from the model’s parent or guardian, and deliver the photographs to the Guyana based coordinator for delivery to MCF in New York, each group had to develop an efficient system which was presented to the larger group for discussion. Additionally, all participants were required to answer a questionnaire about the programme, and to make suggestions on what can be improved upon.
The two participating artists chronicled the workshop by photographing the participants as they worked through the process. They will continue to record the programme as it unfolds over the next two weeks, and again at the final roll out in late October, when representatives of MCF return to Guyana to post the children’s photographs, which would have been converted into huge-sized posters, in heavily trafficked areas of Georgetown.
After the posters are placed in and around Georgetown, they will be added to JR’s Inside Out site and viewed by people from across the globe. The children, artists and country coordinator are required to participate in this final aspect of the programme. MCF’s commitment to the participants includes providing transportation to anyone who may have moved out of town at the time of the roll out.
In addressing the WITNESS Project participants, Minister Manickchand expressed the importance of utilizing all available resources, including arts-based programming to change violence directed against women and children. She said that by participating in programmes such as Project WITNESS, young people could finally begin to speak out loudly against the violence that has infected the world.
Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2011/08/25/15-children-in-witness-project-photography-workshop