Country/region: Lebanon/Occupied Palestinian Territories and UK
Project focus
Eye to Eye is a multi-media project which enabled fourth-generation Palestinian refugee children living in refugee camps in Lebanon and Occupied Palestinian Territories to express themselves through photography and the web.
Background
Palestinian children in refugee camps in both Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza Strip are growing up with injustice, physical and mental violence, deprivation and discrimination, where their rights are being abused.The political history and failure to find a solution has led to increased anger, radicalisation and Islamisation. For some children joining radical groups is the equivalent of supporting Manchester United. After more than 50 years in exile expressions of anger, frustration, of wanting to fight back are commonplace and reflected in children’s behaviour.
This is why expressive methods such as photography play a useful role. Palestinian children lack safe spaces in which they can talk about their experiences and express their ideas, hopes and fears. SCUK helped provide a non-violent, rights-based framework for methods which enable them to explore their lives and communicate their experiences to others. Eye to Eye aimed to give Palestinian children a voice which can be heard both within their own societies and more widely; with a view to creating a climate of awareness, positive change and action.
The two main aims of the project were to raise public awareness and increase understanding among audiences in the UK of the needs and rights of Palestinian children and the negative impact of the stalled peace process; and to increase awareness among Palestinian communities of the value of children’s work in presenting their situation to the outside world.
Level of cultural intervention
Culture as method (photography, multimedia activities) – process-based with initial participants, leading to either tool or process-based use of curriculum materials and web based information
Activities
Six photography-based workshops were held in refugee camps in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including four seven-day workshops producing materials for local display (in Arabic) and international exhibitions (in English) and for a website developed and managed by the Education Unit in the UK. Two shorter “emergency” intifada workshops focused on eliciting materials for the website.
The workshops used a powerful, highly participative, expressive methodology which enabled the children to learn new skills and gain self-confidence, think for themselves about their lives and communities, and represent themselves to external audiences. Images, quotes and texts by children were used in exhibitions and in education and advocacy work in the Middle East and in the UK.
Photographic workshops were developed following a one-off workshop created and facilitated by freelance photographer Pete Fryer with Palestinian children in a refugee camp in Lebanon in 1997. Children used cameras to get to know and take photos of one another and record life in the camp. They interviewed elders and/or produced written work for an exhibition of up to 700 images. In some workshops “books” were produced by the children with the purpose of providing a referenced resource from which website, exhibition and other materials could be selected in London. Cameras were left with after-school clubs and partner organisations in the camps to allow children to continue to take photographs.
The website provided information for Global Education in the UK and offered a controlled message board system to facilitate interaction and exchange between Palestinian refugee children and other individuals and groups around the world. The website also incorporated curriculum materials linked to ICT, Citizenship and Religious Education for use by teachers in the UK.
Outcomes
- An estimated 100 children participated, including 10 who were involved in later workshops as volunteer assistants or peer educators.
- 1,000 people are estimated to have seen the children's’ exhibitions in their refugee camps.
- Created exciting methods for engaging with children, facilitating participation and promoting their views within their own communities and to external audiences.
- Anecdotal evidence shows the exhibitions are changing perceptions about children in their communities. They appear to be increasing belief in children’s abilities and respect for children among parents/other family members, community leaders and national leaders.
- After seeing the children’s exhibition in one Gaza refugee camp the head of the local council said he had not seen the children in such a positive light before and that he would involve children from the camp in further activities.
- The website incorporates online curriculum materials for UK teachers
- Developed and brought together a range of new tools for Save the Children work with children including photography, text, internet and video
- A second Eye to Eye project is planned for India for which a pilot was run in 2003 using digital technology within a similar framework to address child rights.
Beneficiary feedback (reported)
Summaries of participatory review workshops with 30 children in two different camps in Lebanon reflect strong, positive consensus:
- we learnt new skills, especially how to take photos, do an interview, approach adults and other children
- we made new friends and met new people
- we visited and learnt about different parts of the camp
- we understood some of the problems in the camps
- we developed our own ideas
- we gained confidence
- we had fun and were happy
Children commented on the value of the project to them/their family:
- “I became free and from inside more self-confident”
- “It makes me happy”
- “My mother was very happy when she saw me using the camera”
- “My father wants me to become a journalist now”
According to one local social worker, an extremely shy girl who had barely spoken with her peers in the two years since she arrived in the camp gradually began talking with the other children through the workshop. She later brought family members to see her work in the exhibition and to meet other children.
In Lebanon one Palestinian child with Downs Syndrome volunteered: “During the first intifada we saw on TV that the Israelis were pushing journalists to take pictures… we can do this instead of journalists and show people what our lives are like”.
In Balata Refugee Camp one teacher commented: “This is the first time we have seen the children’s ideas. There are no adults translating this work – it shows the children’s perspective”. In Lebanon the local exhibitions have also had some impact outside the Palestinian community. For example, one Lebanese national commented: “I didn’t know conditions in the camps were so bad”.
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