Prevent Youth Involvement in Drug Trafficking

CEMINA has been developing programs that foster the empowerment of underserved communities in Brazil for over 20 years.  I had the great privilege of visiting the Julio Otoni Community Center located in the favela of the same name in Rio de Janeiro (http://juliootoni.wordpress.com/sobre-o-projeito/about/).  

The Center is busy preparing for the launch of a photography exposition this Sunday called "Peeps from Within" designed to give favela children a voice through film and photography. Viewers of the exhibition can gain a glimpse into the childrens' lives through their own eyes.  

CEMINA worked very hard to obtain over 20 cameras from the UK that are now being utilized by the kids to take photos of everyday life in the community.  According to Thais Corral, General Coordinator of the project, the exhibition adheres to the ideals of the center, "to create a home for people."  Through teaching photography, film, dance and music, the Center's volunteers create the conditions for children to express themselves in new and creative ways, and in doing so gain confidence and self-respect.  Many of the volunteers are professional artists in their respective areas.

If you would like to give money to support CEMINA's amazing work in Julio Otoni in providing low-income children with alternative activities out of school hours to prevent their involvement with drugs and gangs, click

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/prevent-youth-from-brazil-gang-involvement-education/

Links:

• Article in The Rio Times

Since March, "doing all digital" kicked off at the focus of this semester at Julio Otoni. The focus is on doing activities that can be expressed  Digitally… th anks to some very creative volunteers (Frances and Tamara), the kids have started photography classes, producing their own videos on current and social issues and even writing, producing and acting in their own short “novela” (Brazilian Soap Opera) style videos. As you can imagine, the kids are absolutely LOVING it! There have been some logistical and technical issues to overcome (only having a few working cameras and no working computers being the main ones) but everyone has pulled  together and thanks to some amazing camera donations things are now well underway.

So, aside from being great fun, is there a  reason why workshops like these are important to the kids? Frances Ridley from Banded ( www.bandedarts.co.uk) , one of the volunteers, tell us what Digital Depiction and Peeps from Within is all about and why it’s important…

“‘Digital Depiction’ is a series of workshops that aim to teach children from poor communities in Rio de Janeiro techniques in digital photography, film making and ways in which they can show, through imagery, a true, realistic representation of their community to an outside audience, who often have many negative preconceived ideas. Throughout a twelve week programme the children will be introduced to different techniques essentials in photography and be familiarised to other photographers and artists and well as creative and political thinkers for inspiration. They will be encouraged to use techniques learnt and experiment with their photography to produce interesting, exciting images that capture their lives and communities. Each week will be based on a different photographic technique and will encompass different themes such as environment, women, family etc.

We believe that these set of new activities will prepare children to be much more active in their communities too!!!

We welcome donations to maintain the basic costs of the project.



Links:

• how children are using cameras to report about the community
• TV Julio otoni done by the children