PROOF
Media for Social Justice©
ANNUAL
REPORT
2014
Contents Letter from the Executive Director 4 About us 6 Maria’s Story 8 Saying No to Child Soldiers 10 Achievments & Kudos 12 Learning to Picture Justice 14 Our Projects 16 Our Partners 24 How to Help 24
Letter from the Executive Director In 2014, our work at Proof continued and expanded both internationally and locally. Our focus on highlighting human rights and acknowledging moral courage engaged more people and documented more stories through testimony and photography. The stories we bring to light come from ordinary people who have faced their circumstances with astonishing bravery. As rescuers and survivors, they are an example to all of us. They have found their way to do the right thing–whether rescuing others, supporting fellow sufferers, or working to bring their stories to help others to speak out. During the civil war in Colombia, Maria was tortured, raped, and mutilated and was then afraid to tell anyone what happened. For years, she remained silent. But after working with PROOF, she found the courage to speak, and felt not only that her story was heard, but also that it was received, understood, and seen as politically and socially meaningful. She now leads a mentoring project that has built a network of help for rape survivors. All change is local before it can become global. Through stories like Maria’s, we know how to work for justice. We partner with organizations -- such as the Swiss-based TRIAL -- that help victims find closure through legal action. And in the end, we hope that our work can help reshape the global human rights discussion to ultimately stop these heinous violations.
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In the past year our work has had an impact locally with the development of a youth empowerment program, Picture Justice, and exhibitions held at Yale University and the Holocaust Museum Houston. As we reflect on 2014 and move forward, we are inspired and energised by the stories and acts of moral courage as we balance our work on both the international and local platforms. From all of us at PROOF, a profound thank you for your support. We look forward to sharing our hopes and victories with you as we work together for another fruitful year. In peace, Leora Kahn Executive Director, PROOF
Board
Staff
David Garrison | President
Leora Kahn | Executive Director
Leslie Thurman| Secretary
Willhemina Wahlin | Creative Director
Pascale Goldenstein | Treasurer
Debra Driscoll | Development Associate and Program Coordinator
Fran Kaufman | Kaufman Vardy Projects
Emma Andersson | Social Media Associate
F.Robert Stein Esq.
Smita Sharma | Program Officer and Photographer-India
Advisory Board
Samyukta Lakshmi | Program Assistant
Jonathan Alter | Bloomberg Review Olivia Drier | Karuna Center for Peacebuilding Adrian Edwards | Panos Pictures Alex Gibney | Jigsaw Productions Ed Kashi | V11 Photo Agency Ben Kiernan | Yale University Peter Mantello | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Erik Parens | The Hastings Center Tali Nates | Johannesburg Holocaust Centre Mark O’Brien | Pro Bono Net Marc Skvirsky | Facing History and Ourselves John Withers II | Former U.S. Ambassador 5
About Us PROOF: Media for Social Justice uses photography and other media to highlight human rights abuses and promote peace. PROOF aims to help people whose human rights have been violated. Its programs reveal the truth about abuses to people living in affected communities, and inform populations worldwide. Bringing together photographers, documentarians, academics, and activists, PROOF creates exhibitions, workshops and other educational programming in some of the world’s most troubled communities. These projects relate unheralded stories of acts of moral courage and document injustice and human rights abuses, truths that otherwise might remain untold. Partnering with local organizations in post-conflict societies, PROOF’s field workers collect testimonies of people who have suffered through human rights crises. Their stories form the basis of our storytelling and educational programs that raise the collective consciousness to promote peace and healing. The visual documentaries we create become permanent educational tools in regions riven by recent armed conflict and elsewhere. PROOF uses every media and communications vehicle possible to create campaigns of activism and empowerment. Our social awareness campaigns include photography exhibits, books, printed literature, workshops, lectures, and expert panel discussions.
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We also contribute to research and scholarship, develop educational materials for local and international use, and encourage activism and empowerment to promote social change and healing. For a small organization, PROOF has a powerful mission and a long reach. Our work documents visual proof of human tragedies and triumphs in the aftermath of violent conflict. We work with major international organizations such as the UN to change human rights policies and laws and with international and local organizations to build peace. These efforts raise public consciousness of human rights abuses, educate people in ways they can take action, and prompt an engaged global response to crises. We work strategically with public institutions to raise public awareness of social injustice around the world. PROOF has made an impact on thousands of lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Nepal, Congo and Rwanda. Our exhibits have also been viewed in countries across the globe. Every project we develop lives on for years, traveling and educating people, while we devote energy to researching and crafting our next programs. The challenge remains far greater than any small group of people can face alone. But with support from donors, countless hours from our volunteer staff, and effective partnerships, PROOF is helping to change the dialogue on human rights and making a difference for those whose rights have been abused.
Our Impact
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PROOF’s programs give hope to survivors of terrible atrocities. Empowering people to exchange stories is the first step toward individual healing and re-integration into the community.
Our vision centers on observing, educating, and inspiring, as we use visual media for peacebuilding and sharing stories of suffering and generosity in times of conflict and danger. Our initiatives focus on tangible outcomes, directly engaging communities most in need of help, healing, and justice.
Since our founding, PROOF has made an impact on many lives »»»
partners worked with us to make these events possible countries hosted PROOF’s traveling exhibits academic conferences, workshops and exhibits were led by PROOF rape survivors participated in workshops stories were told people viewed PROOF’s publicly displayed exhibitions
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Maria’s Story In 1997, Maria’s life changed forever. While making her way to another town, a gang of men kidnapped, violently raped, and tortured her. They warned her that if she told anyone, they would murder her family.
In 2014, the “My Body: A War Zone” exhibit traveled throughout Colombia to display sexual abuse survivors’ images and testimonies in affected communities.
She describes the aftermath of her time in hell:
Instead of hiding, they found the courage to face danger, to come out in their communities and confront their violators. They want their faces to be shown and their stories told. They want everyone to know what happened.
When I returned home, I showered and remained silent. I was afraid even to tell my mother. I was afraid to go to the doctor. I have pain in my spine. A doctor asked me if I had received a heavy blow because I have a curvature. When they raped me, they also beat me and threw me. But I did not tell that doctor anything. In 2007, after hearing about other women’s experiences, Maria broke her silence, and found the courage to speak out and even to denounce her abusers. Today, Maria has regained her vitality. After working with PROOF, she organized and became the leader of a project to mentor rape survivors. The project has expanded from an original circle of 11 Colombian women. Each leader mentors five women, who in turn go on to mentor others, ultimately building a large support system for victims of sexual violence during the Colombian Civil War. Working with PROOF empowered these women, giving them a voice and building their confidence in their ability to organize. No longer suffering alone in silence, they emerged as a force in their own right.
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There is a long road from shame to empowerment. With our support, these women made that journey.
After working with PROOF, Maria organized and became the leader of a project to mentor rape survivors.
Photo: Blake Fitch
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Saying No to Child Soldiers War is the ultimate threat to children’s rights, yet more than one billion children live in places torn apart by armed conflict. Some 300,000 children are absorbed into violent conflicts worldwide. Some are exploited as fighters, messengers, spies, porters, cooks and sexual slaves, while others are used as suicide bombers, forced to brave the front lines, or are sent ahead of the regular troops into minefields. Partnering with several major international organizations, we brought our “Children of War: Broken Childhood” exhibition to Johannesburg South Africa. This exhibit encompasses four vital themes: female child soldiers, reintegration, small arms and light weapons, and the fight against impunity. Opening on November 20 2014, the exhibit marked Universal Children’s Day and the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The event took place at Constitution Hill, a former prison notorious for the harsh treatment of its inmates. The exhibit was accompanied by an additional month of educational programming. Audiences heard from former child soldiers, including a young man who was abducted in the DRC at the age of 12 and held captive for several years.
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The exhibit’s photos were drawn from the book Child Soldier by PROOF’s Executive Director Leora Kahn, which features the work of renowned war photographers. Co-sponsoring the exhibit were the High Commission of Canada, UN Information Centre, and Constitution Hill. The exhibit was jointly produced by PROOF and the Office of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
War is the ultimate threat to children’s rights, yet more than one billion children live in places torn apart by armed conflict.
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Achievements and Kudos Legacy of Rape Project
My Body: A War Zone
“The Legacy of Rape” exhibit was displayed at Yale University, opening with a discussion led by Leora Kahn, who was joined by Luis Moros, Director of Gender Based Violence at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and photographer Blake Fitch. Presenters shared their reflections on the exhibit and on their involvement with the project.
Late last year, another of PROOF’s exhibits, “My Body: A War Zone,” part of the Legacy of Rape project, was featured as part of a gender-based violence awareness campaign in Colombia. The exhibit opened in June in Bogota, in cooperation with UNFPA and Universidad de los Andes, and is currently traveling around Colombia.
Ms. Kahn also led a Refugee Testimonies Workshop with Dr. Anita Fobos, an anthropologist at Clark University who has conducted research and outreach with refugees and other forced migrants in urban settings in the Middle East. The workshop was geared towards professionals who work with refugees and other displaced people.
“My Body: A War Zone” shows images and testimonies of women exposed to sexual abuse during the armed conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Congo, and Nepal.
The project brought together academics and field practitioners to develop skills for recording testimonies and building impactful narratives. Participants benefited from the multidisciplinary environment’s knowledge exchange. They developed a deeper understanding of how individual stories can play a role in exposing refugees’ plight. The workshop coincided with the opening of another PROOF exhibit, “Picturing Moral Courage: The Rescuers,” at Clark University. To create that exhibit, PROOF fieldworkers interviewed and documented the stories of people who rescued their fellow citizens during the Holocaust and the genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Each person’s image and testimony reveal how “ordinary” citizens, who chose to rescue the targeted “other,” became heroes while their countries underwent the horrors of genocide.
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The exhibit also opened in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in partnership with the Post Conflict Research Center (PCRC), at the ‘’International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict,” an event held in cooperation with the British Embassy, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina, Medical Zenica, the Ministry of Defence of BiH, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and the Peace Support Operation Training Centre. Displaying exhibits like these in public spaces raises awareness of the toll brought by atrocities that accompany armed conflict. “My Body: A War Zone” exposes the pain and stigmatization that follows sexual abuse while working to bring solace and justice for survivors.
Innovation Award for “The Rescuers” Based on PROOF’s “Rescuers” exhibition, PCRC’s multimedia project, “Ordinary Heroes”, was awarded first prize by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group in August in Bali. The award recognizes projects that promote intercultural dialogue, understanding, and cooperation around the world. PROOF’s Rescuers project brings a global perspective to PCRC’s project. By recounting stories of rescuers and their moral courage from conflicts outside of Bosnia as well as within, PROOF’s peacebuilding exhibit helps promote reconciliation and cooperation among Bosnia and Herzegovina’s divided citizenry. Since the “The Rescuers” opened in Sarajevo in July 2011, it has travelled extensively across Bosnia and Herzegovina, bringing international stories of intercultural cooperation to town squares and local public spaces. Efforts such as these have broadened the outlook of people in the region, and have helped to overcome a legacy of war and hatred. In addition to its display across the Balkan region and Clark University, “The Rescuers” was also exhibited at the Holocaust Museum Houston. Photos on this page: Left: Luis Moros, Leora Kahn & Blake Fitch at Yale; Center: “My Body: A War Zone, on display in Bosnia & Herzegovina (Photo: PCRC); Bottom: “My Body: A War Zone, on display in Colombia.
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Learning to Picture Justice In August 2014, PROOF and the UN International School (UNIS) piloted a photojournalism program in human rights. High school students who study global politics at UNIS participated in the pilot. Organized by a UNIS teacher, Abby MacPhail, in collaboration with New York Times photojournalist Michael Kirby Smith, students used photography and investigative journalism to explore human rights issues in New York City, such as aggressive policing, homelessness, workers’ rights, violence against members of the LGTBQ community, and immigration. The students visited local organizations including the Police Reform Organizing Project, Anti-Violence Project, the Hispanic Resource Center, New York State Youth Leadership Council, Street Vendor Project, the Urban Justice Center, Workers Justice Project, Picture the Homeless, and the Center for Constitutional Rights. The culmination of their experiences and work was displayed in an exhibit designed and curated by PROOF. The display, called, “I Don’t Feel Protected,” will also be adapted into a script that will be performed by the UNIS theater department in the coming year. Student Emma Blau described her experience: “I enjoyed the program because, while you can talk about human rights issues, it is different to actually experience them. That makes the issues much more real.” Photos: Top right: David Arky; Bottom: Examples of student work from the Picture Justice workshop
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“I enjoyed the program because, while you can talk about human rights issues, it is different to actually experience them. That makes the issues much more real.” –Picturing Justice student, Emma Blau
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Our Programs
Child Soldiers
PROOF is in a unique position to make an impact. Through visual and verbal storytelling, we spread the messages of human rights abuse survivors. In partnership with organizations dedicated to peacebuilding, we help bring justice to those who were wronged.
Our photography exhibits, workshops, and lectures documenting the tragedy of child soldiers on four continents have been featured at the UN in New York City, and in Italy, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and Canada. General RomÊo Dallaire’s non-profit organization, Child Soldier Initiative, a partner of PROOF, is displaying the exhibit throughout Canada. Dallaire is renowned for his efforts to stop the Rwandan genocide as commander of the UN peacekeeping force there in 1993 and 1994.
While we cannot stop the scourge of violence in the world, we believe that powerful images and stories will motivate people and nations to act and to help heal shattered lives. PROOF generates awareness, dialogue, and positive action by countering the hideous and dehumanizing nature of violent conflict with beautiful and empowering photographs of its subjects. At PROOF, we strive to change policies affecting those whose lives have been altered by violent conflict, along with those who are insulated from such conflicts by divides of space and daily experience. We believe that photography, dialogue, and education can change the way people think and relate to this complex and troubled world.
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Photo (right): Cedric Gerbehaye
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Darfur: Photojournalists Respond This pictorial chronicle of the devastation in Darfur continues to travel and inspire lectures and discussions. It was originally produced in conjunction with the Holocaust Museum of Houston, a PROOF partner organization, and with Amnesty International. The first genocide of the 21st century began in one of the most remote places in Africa — Darfur, a region in the largest African country, Sudan. In February 2003, the storm of violence went virtually unnoticed by those outside of the region. No one came to the rescue, and in two years, 400,000 people died from violence, disease, and malnutrition. In July 2004, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives adopted a joint resolution declaring the atrocities occurring in Sudan to be genocide. With the official declaration of genocide, the U.N.’s 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment on the Crime of Genocide finally gave rise to a call for participating countries to take steps to prevent barbaric acts. Photo (left): Lynsey Addario
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The Rescuers PROOF continues to tell the stories of “rescuers,” people who helped to protect the “other” in the midst in danger during genocides. The Rescuers exhibition has traveled throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Spain, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, and Rwanda, and to universities around the US. Through a contract with USAID, PROOF’s team traveled to Sri Lanka to train religious leaders and interview rescuers from the 30year conflict. In Cambodia, our local partner, Youth for Peace, took the exhibition into rural areas, where they have been conducting workshops and performances for young people. “The Rescuers” has traveled to 18 cities in the Balkans, including Srebrenica, the site of one of the worst massacres of the Bosnian war. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has honored the exhibit at the US Department of State. Photo (right): PROOF team members recording rescuer Hang Romny’s testimony in Cambodia
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The Legacy of Rape PROOF created this exhibit in collaboration with partner organization TRIAL in Switzerland to bring awareness of the plight of survivors of sexual violence in armed conflict. Legacy of Rape seeks to educate stakeholders and policy makers to further the creation of policies to ensure that survivors have access to clinical and social support and justice. It opened at the US Institute of Peace (a partner organization) and was then the focal point at an international human rights film festival in Geneva, Switzerland. With the support of a grant from the Open Society Foundation, the exhibit traveled to Eastern Congo, DRC, where it was displayed at legal clinics sponsored by another PROOF partner, the American Bar Association. PROOF’s team traveled to Nepal and Colombia to gather testimonies for the exhibit. PROOF also sponsored a weeklong workshop in Nepal with rape survivors, led by our partner organization, HimRights, which delivered psychosocial and medical aid. This year the exhibit traveled to several cities and towns in Colombia, including the capital Bogotå. Photo (right): Pete Muller
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Our Partners Aegis Trust
Open Society Foundations
Amnesty International
Parsons School of Design
Anne Frank Center
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Bigfoot Communications
Sarvodaya
Braenchild Media
TRIAL Track Impunity Always
Center for Justice and Reconciliation
UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict
Child Soldiers Initiative High Commission of Human Rights of Canada Duggal Visual Solutions HimRights -Human Rights Monitor Holocaust Museum Houston Karuna Center for Peacebuilding Kigali Memorial Centre Man Up National Foundation of India
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United Nations Population Fund University of Los Andes
How to Help Exhibit Arrange for one of PROOF’s exhibitions to travel to an institution in your area. Additional information is available on our website. Email us at info@proof.org. Volunteer Volunteers are the engine that power PROOF’s work, from college and graduate students who promote PROOF’s outreach, to photographers and creative artists who use their talents to help tell our stories. Bid Attend PROOF’s major annual fundraising event, our spring photography auction, and bid on beautiful photography for your home or office, or for gifts. Donate Just click on our website: proof.org.
University of Magdalena UNHCR US Institute of Peace
PROOF
Media for Social Justice©
Yale University Youth for Peace
Visual storytelling for human rights and peacebuilding