AjA-Journey, San Diego (PP)
Project manager: The AjA Project, San Diego, California, USA
Photography by refugee and underprivileged youth in USA
"I was going to school in Afghanistan, if the Taliban is coming, nobody is going to school. Girls can't go to school, because of the Taliban. If the Taliban sees a hand, they cut his hand off. My father was a soldier in Afghanistan. They ask my mother where my father is, she says ,'I don't know.' The Taliban says, 'I kill your husband.'"
The AjA Project is based in San Diego and currently operates and supports three programs and one travelling exhibition. The programs include Journey in San Diego, Record of Truth in Thailand and Disparando Cámaras para la Paz (Shooting Cameras for Peace) in Colombia.
Journey is an after-school and summer participatory photography class in San Diego County which focuses on promoting literacy, computer skills and healing for resettled refugee youth from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan.
Lives in Transition: Expressions of Refugee Youth is an extensive multimedia exhibition that showcases the work of the refugee youth involved in all of our programs which offers honest, powerful and humane portrayals of the students' daily life experiences. Lives in Transition debuted at the National Geographic Society Explorers Hall in Washington DC as part of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) World Refugee Day.
Following the six week exhibition at Explorers Hall, the exhibition will travel to a variety of universities, museums and public spaces throughout the country including Georgetown University, The Seattle Art Museum, the United Nations New York and the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Centre in San Diego.
To find out more information on this project please go to: www.ajaproject.org/colombiaproject.html