ACT Photo Essay

Pakistan 0206

Kashmir Seasons

Creative Photography as a Psycho-social Therapy Project in Kashmir, Pakistan, with Child Survivors of the October 8, 2005, Earthquake

A project of Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA), a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International

Children's Pakistan - Summer Photo Essay

Children's Pakistan - Autumn Photo Essay

Objective of the project

Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA) is carrying out a psycho-social project involving creative photography with 80 children between the ages of 12 and 18 at several middle schools in villages located in Kashmir in Pakistan. With guidance from workshop sessions and interactive discussions, the children have been photographing daily life in their surroundings, paying particular attention to the changing seasons and the recovery of life after the October 8, 2005, earthquake that struck border areas of Pakistan and India. With the single-use cameras they are provided, the children are also given notebooks to record related thoughts in a diary

Prior to the start of the project, the children's teachers were introduced to the psycho-social aspects and impacts of the project. Together with their help, the children who are particiating in the project were selected.

Within special tutorials and workshop discussions, the photographs of the children are short-listed, analyzed, discussed and edited together with each and every student who participates in the project, thus involving the children in a creative self-expression exercise through photography and writing. By capturing a sense of time and place, this educational project will re-establish a sense of belonging, and, therefore, an improvement in the mental health of the participants.

At the end of the project, the children will be encouraged to choose their 12 best photos of the four seasons in all the villages, from which a calendar will be put together as the final product of the project. The calendars will be distributed to all the children involved in the project as well as in all the schools in the Salmiah and Chikar villages of Kashmir. Thus, the children themselves will have created their own calendar for 2008.

Carrying out the project

In June 2006, 70 cameras were distributed to 60 children. The ages of the children varied from 12 to 16. Boys and girls took part, with emphasis on an equal distribution of cameras to both groups.

The aim of the project was to enable and facilitate a group of children affected by the earthquake to create a photo story that would represent the place they live in, what they lived through, and how they are recovering. With this purpose, and working under the theme of the natural environment, the project set about to produce a calendar with photos that accurately described the change of seasons, paralleling the changes in the children's lives. The change in seasons was found to be a natural theme in which the children can easily depict the changes in their lives after the earthquake. Also this would help them understand the fragility of nature, and therefore the reasons for the earthquake, as well as providing the added benefit of not blaming themselves and their communities for the disaster they lived through, a frame of mind that is common in the culture and belief system of the Kashmiris.

Part I: Summer
Children's Pakistan - Summer Photo Essay

The first part of the project involved photographing the summer season. It was decided to work in two different settlements for the project - Chikar town and Jabar Jandali village. Chikar is a more "urban" area, and Jabar Jandali is by far the most remote and "rural" of the surrounding villages in the area of DEA's operation.

Other similar photos taken by children in other parts of the world hit by disasters (Bam, Iran, tsunami areas in Sri Lanka, and refugee camps in the Sahara Desert) were shown to the children. They were asked to discuss the similarity of these disasters as well as the similarity of their photos, the emotions they are portraying, and the messages they are giving through these photos. These workshops were an opportunity to provoke discussion and thought about the entire experience of photography while at the same time creating a dialog among all participants and world cultures.

Out of 1,680 photographs taken by the boys and girls, 45 were chosen to represent the first part of the project.

For the first anniversary of the earthquake, an exhibition was held at Chikar Fatima Foundation School on October 9, 2006, with outdoor shows held near DEA's Chikar camp and in all of the 16 villages of Salmiah union council. Thousands of children from the town and surrounding villages came to the shows. The Chikar exhibition was organized entirely by the children of Chikar Fatima Foundation School, who also put on various colourful performances.

The activities of the day included drama performances, singing, dancing, prayers for those who died in the earthquake, and speeches by students, teachers, and community members.

The outcome of the first part of the project showed the expressiveness, empowerment, pride, self-confidence, and responsibility of the children.

The selection of these 45 images of the summer season formed a basis of the next phase of the project autumn.

Part II: Autumn Children's Pakistan - Autumn Photo Essay

For the second phase of the project, the schools in the village of Pano Pindi were included to give more students a chance to express themselves through photography. Similar to the first phase of the project, the children were given one week to shoot their photos during the second week of October.

After a wide edit was made, the photos were brought back to the children to discuss with them the reasons behind the chosen photographs. Workshop sessions on further editing and discussions on photo contents and composition were held. A second set of cameras was given to the children to shoot with over the Ramadan Eid holidays. Having seen their efforts and results in the first round of photos, the children were encouraged to take photos in a different and more creative and expressive way. Approximately half the participants showed clear improvement in the second set of photos shot, signalling that they were positively affected and had taken note of what was said in the workshops.

Of all the 2,160 photos shot from the 90 cameras distributed, a final selection of 50 images was made. After this, the chosen images were handed back to participants, and they were asked to write captions for them. Some of the captions had personality, revealing a lot more of the participant than just a plain description of the image.

Even though the first snow fell in the village of Jabar Jandali on November 17, 2006, the autumn session was closed with the consensus that the third part of the project would begin the first week of December.

Impacts of the project

The main purpose of this project is to empower individual children through the act of taking photos. This also enhances a thought process - in essence: “We are given a task, so how do we accomplish it?” Because the children are working toward a goal and a product, there is a sense of responsibility that accompanies the project and the act of taking photos.

This also encourages self-confidence and enhances the social skills of the children through participatory and interactive workshops and the act of sharing their creative work with others. Eventually, it gives the participants satisfaction to have their photos shared and appreciated; even more so for those whose photos were displayed in the exhibition. The accompanying satisfaction is encouragement.

The participants add their individuality to the project through creative photos and writings about the seasons. In the open discussions periodically held throughout the project, children have asked about the fragility of their natural surroundings, the earthquake and even about global warming. After the final discussion, a group of children from Chikar actively picked up litter from the school yard because they had all determined that their natural environment was precious.