The My World, My View photography project, led by journalist, photographer and Asha-Nepal trustee Sue Carpenter, was set up to help disadvantaged girls to find their voice and develop the confidence to use it. The 22 participants, aged 6 to 16, live in the care of SOS Bahini. They were given cameras and photography tuition and encouraged to document their world through their own eyes. The joy that emanates from their photos shows that, despite the traumas they have experienced, their spirit has remained intact.
Each of the participants has her own photo gallery, below. Every image has been taken by one of the students, unaided and using the skills they have learnt in the photography sessions with Sue Carpenter. To me, the outcomes are startling: incredibly mature, well composed photographs, some telling, some amusing and some poignant.
If you feel moved to buy a print, please contact me, admin@asha-nepal.org The girls would be absolutely thrilled, and the revenue will go towards further projects with SOS Bahini, with a separate royalty to be divided equally between the girls for personal savings (they all have accounts at the Children's Development Bank which will help to secure their lives in the uncertain future they currently face) and personal needs. Your purchase will also help build their personal confidence in their abilities - a vital outcome of the project - and could be the catalyst for their pursuing photography as a career.
Price per print: 8" x 10" (glossy, mounted): £25 incl. UK post and packing.
Many thanks,
Peter Bashford, Chairperson Asha-Nepal
Kamala, 15, is a confident young woman and a gifted dancer. She is lucky enough to live with her sisters and her natural mother, thanks to SOS Bahini's policy of employing widowed mothers as house mothers, in order to keep families together and to provide a family environment for girls who have none. Kamala has really captured the atmosphere and events of Dasain festival at Bindyabasini Temple, where the girls went on an early field trip, getting up close where some other girls hung back and observed from afar. Kamala wants to be a dance teacher.
