Empower Maya Youth in a Post-Genocide Community

What does this photo say about you, your community, or the world?

How does this photo make you feel and why?

Does this photo inspire you to change anything about the future?

These were the types of questions that engaged our 8th grade scholars, together with a group of visiting high schoolers from Catlin Gabel and Oregon Episcopal School, last month during a week-long series of photography workshops at Limitless Horizons Ixil. As part of the Photovoice Project, students learned the basics of taking a good photograph, and discussed how photography could be used as a tool for storytelling, self-expression, and social change. Then, with cameras in hand, they headed out into the community to capture the beautiful, the problematic, and the mundane aspects of daily life in Chajul.

These photo assignments also created an opportunity for our scholars to show the American students around town, inviting them to their favorite public spaces and sometimes even into their homes. In between snapshots, they played games, told jokes, and formed friendships. Later, as they reviewed the photographs they had taken together, true cultural exchange transpired. What our scholars had seen through their lenses as ordinary scenes, such as of their mothers weaving, or their brothers on horseback transporting firewood, were complete novelties to the American students. In discussing their different reactions to each image, they began to learn about each other’s lives and to see things through another lens.

At the end of the week, students worked together to choose the best photos to display at a public exhibition in Chajul’s parish hall. In anticipation of the event, they created a powerpoint presentation, printed and framed photos to hang on the wall, wrote speeches, and practiced their public speaking skills; for many of our scholars, it would be their first time ever speaking in front of a large audience. 

Approximately 70 community members showed up for the exhibition, including parents, health workers, and teachers and students from public schools. After an introductory presentation, our scholars split the audience into small groups and guided them around the parish hall in a tour of the framed photographs. Common themes and emotions emerged from the images; photos depicting colorful textiles, cornfields, and laughing children tended to induce a sense of cultural pride in the public, who also had to grapple with the discomfort of seeing polluted streams and piles of trash in the streets. Afterwards, scholars invited audience members to snack on homemade tamales and to mingle, allowing them space to reflect on and discuss amongst themselves the issues that were presented in the exhibition.

We are so proud of how our scholars managed to create bridges across cultures (through their teamwork with the visiting students) and across generations (by bravely presenting their photos and ideas to the community). Thanks to supporters like you, our scholars are growing as  leaders in Chajul, able to think critically about local and global problems while never losing a sense of pride in their culture and identity. Thank you for always believing in the incredible potential of Chajul’s youth!