Moving Lives Screening
23 February 2006 at 6.30pm
Ten digital stories made by young unaccompanied refugees and young people living in East London will be screened as part of PhotoVoice’s Moving Lives project at The Stratford Picture House, East London, on February 23rd at 6.30pm. There will also a short documentary about the project, Telling My Story.
Moving Lives is a digital story-telling project run in collaboration with Project DOST (Friend) at Trinity Community Centre which provides specialist, individual and long-term support to separated refugee children.
The digital stories are the result of photographic workshops bringing together young refugees with local pupils who have lived and grown up in East London. Throughout 2005, 32 young people, aged between 12 and 17 years old – representing 19 countries around the world - have been trained in digital photography, story-telling and editing skills.
In 2004 alone, about 2900 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arrived in the UK, the majority settling in London. Many young refugees find the social isolation one of the hardest aspects of life to cope with when arriving in the UK, and one of the greatest challenges to integrating into UK society. Moving Lives helps young refugees make the transition to life in the UK by building confidence in their voices; and providing a means for them to speak out about their hopes, fears, ideas, dreams and ambitions.
Through these stories and photographs we glimpse the lives of young people living in London. For example:
- The Kindness of Strangers explores the story of Rizwan, a 15 year old from Pakistan who is abandoned at an unknown London station on his first day in England.
- The Struggles of Success in A Western Lifestyle tells how Ivan, from Uganda, struggles to resolve the temptations and opportunities he finds on arriving in the West.
- Poverty and Wealth is a series of still photographs by Murtaza, a 15 year old from Afganistan, on his impressions of London’s inequalities.
Moving Lives receives generous support from the City Parochial Foundation. Other funding support is provided by Lloyds TSB, the Jack Petchy Foundation, Awards for All and Microsoft Community Learning Awards.