I wanted to get training that would help me set up and run a ministry to garibout boy (a specific group of children at risk) in Mali, West Africa, but I didn’t want just any kind of training. I wanted to look at the hard questions, find out why kids end up in terrible situations, what God says about it all and of course how to help them. I can say confidently that I did learn all that, of course there is always room to learn more and expand my thinking but I definitely got what I needed and wanted.
I can say without a doubt that my thinking in terms of children at risk and how to work with them has been challenged and changed. There are some things where I think it will continue to be a process of change but one of the main things I can share with you is this: I used to think I understood the garibout system pretty well but now I realise there is sooo much I don’t know, for example, I realised most of these little boys are victims of human trafficking, they are slaves, street kids and sometimes orphans. Putting these labels on the boys doesn’t change their situation or who they are but it helps me understand them and better know how to work to help them. All in all this school was an invaluable experience.
What I am doing now is applying all I learnt in the CRS and preparing, researching and praying to set up a ministry to children at risk in Mali, West Africa.
from Rebecca Thomson, she did her CRS in Tijuana, Mexico this year
Exerts from an Interview with a man who tells a tail through his lens; Pablo Jimenez
Can you tell us a specific story about one of your photographs?
I was walking in a poor neighborhood in Diriamba, Nicaragua meeting people and taking pi ctures. One of the local kids was walking with me making sure that I was safe and also he knew the people so he was the one asking if I could take the photo of them. After visiting several houses, we came across a group of men that started calling for me to come over. As I grew closer to the men I saw the tension and fear in the face of the kid I was walking with and I started thinking to myself that this was the last time I would use the camera.The men started questioning me about why I was there. After telling them what I was doing and why, one of them asked me if I could take a photo of him and his wife, because they had just recently gotten married. He called his wife and hugged her and posed for me for several minutes.Through the experience I saw how the love that this guy had for his wife took away all the fear I had for him and his friends. I was able to see beyond the tattoos, the outer appearance and my own prejudice and was able to see, for a minute or two, who he was.
What are some of the difficulties you come across when trying to communicate through your photos?
all I do I try to communicate that there is something deeper. Photography is one of the tools I use to show people that there is more than what they usually see. It is frustrating when people don’t understand the point that I am trying to make. It is easy to feel frustrated or disappointed, but then I always try to remember what is the reason that I communicate or do photography, do I do it because of me and my ego? or do I do it out of my love for God and others?What do you try and capture in a photograph?I try to capture truth and emotion. I want to allow people to submerge in other peoples lives through the photographs and to show them what they think and feel.
At the moment Pablos is working on a new project with 4 more passionate young people;
I want to travel from Panama to Guatemala, doing a documentary about human trafficking. We want to target several areas of these issues, and show that as young people we can shape society. We want to tell the story of the people trapped by prostitution, the story of individuals and organizations that are fighting this issue, and of the those that have been trapped by the addiction and are now in a prison cell. In each country, we would partner with different organizations that are fighting against human trafficking and once completed, the documentary will be a great tool for all of these organizations.”
”The primary reason we want to do this documentary is because each of us see a clear problem without a solution. People are aware that prostitution & human trafficking exists, yet there seems to be a disconnection…. they know the gravity of the situation, but despite knowing it’s going on, they take no action. Therefore, we hope to motivate others to take the same actions that we are taking against this injustice.”
If you want to hear more about his vision and how you can be involved, contact pablo[email protected]
from Pablo who did his Children at Risk school in San Jose, Costa Rica in 2010
