Check out the fabulous writer/photographer/activist Ann Jones as she blogs for 16-Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (Nov 25 – Dec 10). She’s in the Cote d’Ivoire with the International Rescue Committee in an effort to “give women in war zones the opportunity to speak, loudly and clearly.”
The IRC hopes to encourage national reconciliation by working in three different areas, serving three different populations with different needs. But what all three sites have in common is strong programs in “Violences Basees sur le Genre”—Gender-Based Violence.
Why? The answer is painfully simple. In any war, women and children are the principal victims. Offer any humanitarian program to assist people violated, deprived, damaged, or displaced by war and you find yourself serving women and their children, all of whom, in one way or another, have been victims of the violence of war and of additional violence done to them as women.
She will blog once a day through December 10th. Check it out. And don’t miss the post where she teaches the women how to use digital cameras.
Then I send the teams out to take photos. They huddle to consult with each other about the cameras. Is it this button, or that? How hard must I push?
The first team finds a subject. One woman holds the camera firmly, as I’ve taught them, and points it. All heads converge at the viewing screen. What next? A teammate reaches over the camera-holder’s shoulder to depress the shutter button. An icon appears on the screen to indicate whether the subject is in focus. “It’s green! It’s green!” say the team mates. “Push! Push!” The button-pusher’s finger comes down. “Click!” The women scream. They jump up and down. They throw their arms around each other while the camerawoman holds the tiny camera aloft for safekeeping.
Priceless.
*** Further Reading ***
CÔTE D’IVOIRE – Targeting women: The forgotten victims of the conflict
Tags: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, Ann Jones, Cote d'Ivoire, IRC
December 15, 2007 at 6:11 pm |
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
January 14, 2008 at 10:52 pm |
[...] women. They encourage the women to pick up a camera and participate in the filming (not unlike Ann Jones providing women with a means of self-expression and independence through photography in Cote [...]