Webster Elementary School students experience the lives of Ugandan refugee children through the exhibit “Through the Eyes of Children,” from National Geographic and International Medical Corps efforts in training the refugees to photograph their lives, filled with war, famine and personal tragedy.
By Nora Fleming / Special to The Malibu Times
Kindergarten through fifth grade students at Webster Elementary School crowded into the school auditorium to see a collection of photos last Friday; in one, a man picks an insect from underneath the skin of his foot; in another, a small child whose stomach is swollen from malnutrition holds his young sibling; while in another, a man places a cup of water to the mouth of his ailing neighbor, who is too ill to sit up and drink by himself.
“The life here is hard. We should not be here. We are suffering,” reads the description on one of the photographs, which were taken by 60 teenagers, ages 12 to 20, living in a refugee camp in southwest Uganda in 2006.
While the refugee children, who come from countries like Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania, are not much different in age than the Webster students, the photos portrayed reveal disparate lives, filled with the experiences of war, famine and personal tragedy.
The International Medical Corps, a nonprofit global humanitarian organization headquartered in Santa Monica, sponsored the photo project, called Photo Camp Uganda, and with the help of four National Geographic photographers taught the refugee children how to use digital cameras and transform their hardships into an art form.
During the course of three weeks, the children shot 24,000 photographs of their lives in a refugee camp, which housed roughly 15,000 people. A print from each child was selected to display in the traveling exhibit titled, “Through the Eyes of Children,” which has been showcased throughout the world, including stops at the United Nations headquarters in New York, CNN in Atlanta, National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C. and London.
Twenty of these images were displayed on Friday at Webster Elementary, which is one of only three elementary schools in this country to play host to the exhibit. Webster parent Laurie Cappello, who has been involved with fundraising and volunteer efforts with International Medical Corps, organized the effort to bring the photographs and the presentation to the school.
Presenter Margaret Aguirre, a global media strategist with International Medical Corps who participated in the photo project, said the 60 refugee children, all of whom were not attending school but had strong desires to do so, changed from shy to self-assured while learning how to take pictures in the camp.
“[With] digital photography, they could immediately see results when they pointed their cameras and realized, ‘I can capture something I am looking at,’ and use it as a tool of expression,” Aguirre said. “Mastering this very creative skill so quickly, the reserve quality melted away and they became confident [and] masters of their own environments.”
Since its founding in 1984, International Medical Corps has run programs in 50 countries, territories and regions throughout the world, and today focuses on 22, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, Somalia and Ethiopia, to name a few, and strives to build sustainable health care initiatives to improve long-lasting community wellness.
Art therapy projects like Photo Camp Uganda have been targeted as a means to improve community mental health. Its success has led to efforts to put together another camp on the outskirts of Jordan this June where Iraqi refugees and at-risk Jordanian youth will learn how to shoot images with the same group of National Geographic photographers.
Webster Principal Phil Cott, parents and Aguirre said they were all impressed by some of the questions the Webster students asked following the presentation on the refugee children, ranging from how the children survived lacking basic amenities and proper nutrition, the dangers faced by humanitarian workers, such as Aguirre, and what they could do to donate and help.
Following the presentation, 12 students spoke with The Malibu Times about their reactions. All said they felt fortunate and expressed the desire to do something to help the children, either in raising donations or participating/sharing in a type of photo or media exchange.
“It helped me understand how hard life is for them and to appreciate what we have and that we have more than what we need and they have so little,” said fifth grade student Charlotte Jackson.
Just last month, Webster Elementary was recognized by the state of California as one of 11 Service Learning Schools in the state, commemorated by a banner hanging outside the school office. Since 2006 alone, Webster students have engaged in eight service learning projects, including, among others, hosting seriously ill children about to undergo medical treatment, donating holiday gifts to fire victims in Running Springs, and sponsoring a school-wide drive for School on Wheels, an organization that supports homeless students.
“When our kids get upset by something the immediate response is always that they should be doing something about it,” said Principal Cott, following the presentation. “All three groups of K-5 students seemed thoughtful and extraordinarily attentive and engaged, and judging from their questions, it really seemed that they were getting an idea of what people in the refugee world have to deal with.”
More information on International Medical Corps can be found online at www.imcworldwide.org