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Breakthrough

Today, the boys surprised me with their focus and determination on the day’s assignment. They showed me just how much They’re motivated by the creative work.

Part of it has to do with their working together and separate from the girls. I would love to see everyone working together in the program, but I know that it would cause trouble for the youth centre and pose a challenge to the program. Kalandia refugee camp is more conservative than city centres in the West Bank. I feels like a world away from Ramallah, the main work and social hub in the West Bank, even though it’s only a ten minute taxi ride away. The families here are worried about their daughters spending too much time with the boys, and the boys don’t want trouble with the families of the girls. It’s an interesting dynamic that has taken me a short while to understand and a long time to accept. For now, I am working around this unspoken law the best I can, by facilitating group work only when another employee of the youth centre is present.

In any case, I am finding that working with the youth in smaller groups, all of the same gender, has made them feel more comfortable. And if the kids are comfortable and happy, I’m comfortable and happy.

Today’s assignment was to capture the people of Kalandia, with a focus on colour in the camp. I walk the winding, cracked streets of Kalandia daily and see that this camp is unlike any other. Many people have preconceived notions of what a refugee camp is. They hear the words and already have an image in their minds of what it looks and feels like. I am not an exception. Before I came here for the first time last summer, I imagined pitched tents and dire poverty. I found a few cases of the latter, but all other expectations were shattered when I entered the camp.

When you project an idea of a place, it necessarily reflects on the people who live there. What they look like, how they act, what they do…it’s all an integral part of a place. Without the dynamic and unique people of Kalandia, there would be no Kalandia the way it is now.

I wanted to find out what the kids thought of the people in their camp, through photographs. Like an introduction to the camp, brought to you by Omar, Ahmad, Muhammad, and Bilel.

Welcome to Kalandia.

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Categories Kalandia Youth Media

Water, Sanitation, People

23 Jul

I noticed something about the photos being taken by the kids. When we go out into the refugee camp, the girls would consistently take photos of garbage and the boys would take photos of graffiti or cars. There was little variation. I began introducing photography lessons, and their work became more focused and creative.

Once they had learned these basics of photography, I hoped that anything they captured would be more purposeful. I wasn’t disappointed. Instead of snapping a quick photo of a marked-up wall, they would consider why they were taking that photo and how to take it for the best results.

I asked the girls, through broken Arabic and some translation from the English-speaking kids, to focus on recurring elements in their photography: sanitation, water, and the people in Kalandia refugee camp. They were thrilled. Finally, they could apply their lessons and capture what they really wanted.

The day was slow at first. It was hot. The girls were gossiping and giggling and had the cameras at their side. Some of the girls were confused- what water do we take photos of? I gathered the girls around me and began to take photos of a puddle.

Water is precious in Kalandia, it all comes from water tanks perched atop the cement houses and is only delivered monthly, bottled water was sold everywhere but it was rarely bought because even three shekels (about one dollar CND) is an unnecessary expense. There is no formal garbage system (UNRWA funds for garbage trucks to come by but it’s infrequent), and there is no environment to care for in a cracked cement land.

They were contemplative for the rest of the day’s assignment. They drifted apart from one another to take individual shots of something interesting. And they all stayed on-topic. When they came back to the centre and reviewed their work, they were so proud. Looking at their photographs, I am proud of them.