Giving child refugees a voice
Child refugees arrive on Britain's soil every day of the week without a parent or guardian. They arrive, adrift from their own culture, language and all support structures, stripped of any certainty for their future, on the run from extreme trauma and in search of sanctuary. Some have made the long journey to the UK overland, surviving on their wits. Others are brought over by smugglers paid for by their families and are simply dumped once they reach the UK. All too often they are met by blanket public hostility, stigma, and discrimination. The intense psychological scars these young people have accumulated both in their home countries and in leaving their families behind are merely compounded by the isolation they face on their arrival in the UK.
Transparency: Living Without Borders
The Transparency project, implemented by international charity PhotoVoice with support from the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, offered a window on the experiences of a group of young refugees since their arrival in London's East End from countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Iraq, Nigeria, Romania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. Through photography, the 13 students expressed their desire for people to look beyond their refugee status and to see them as they see themselves: as teenagers, far from home, in a difficult present, determined to succeed in spite of their past. The project gave them the opportunity to tell their stories in a new way, through photography, and provided them with new skills which helped build their confidence.
The project grew to be an important support network for the young participants as well as providing them with a creative outlet through which they could combat the de-humanising portrayal of refugees presented in the British media. An individual from the group has gone on to study photography full-time and has secured commission by the BBC. Another member of the group became a finalist in a national self-portraiture competition, featured on Channel 4 and exhibited in London's National Portrait Gallery. In June 2003, the Transparency project won the Arts, Culture and Heritage category of the Charity Awards 2003.
Through the PhotoVoice project, young refugees worked in groups to learn camera skills and powerful new ways of telling their stories. Here are just two of them:
Onesmus, 15 years old, Rwanda
Onesmus's parents were killed in the Rwandan genocide when he was seven. "My mother was Tutsi and my father was Hutu. My mother was a member of the armed forces and my father was originally a cultivator but later converted into a cattle keeper by the influence of my maternal side. Me and my sisters have been orphans since their death in 1994, in the Genocide that saw massive numbers of people from both sides die due to tribal differences."
As he looks through the lens at typical London scenes he says, "When I take photographs I hope to have happiness... When I pass through the city I have hope that maybe one day my country will look like this".
"In this country I hope to build a strong career. It is important that people understand being a refugee does not mean that you are not talented and capable of doing many things".
Tatiana, 18 years old, Angola
"I am 18 years old and I'm new in this country. This country is giving me a lot of good new things so I am very happy and thankful. Although I miss some things from my country, other things I do not miss at all. But it's strange because sometimes I don't feel happy like most of my friends. I don't know why. I wish I could be just like everyone else but I don't feel like that. It's difficult to choose what I'm going to do in the future because everybody gives you different advice.
"I am happy with my photographs now. It looks like maybe I could be a photographer. Well, maybe not. But before, I could never imagine doing a job like that."
For more information about the photographers and their stories, click here.
For more information about PhotoVoice, click here.
http://
back to top