PROOF: Media for Social Justice - Annual Report 2011 by Willhemina Wahlin

Board of Directors David Garrison | Chair Rachael Barrett | Vice Chair Paul Levitz | Treasurer Leslie Thurman | Secretary Robert Stein, Esquire

Letter from the Executive Director 05 Our Mission 06 A Unifying Vision 07 The Need PROOF Fills 07 Our Programs 08 Letter from David Garrison, Chair 09 PROOF exhibit photographs 10-11 Our Reach 12 Partners 13 2011 Funding 13 How To Help 14 2

Leora Kahn Dear Friends, In many ways, 2011 was a watershed year for freedom across the globe. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement in the U.S., we have seen citizens come together and speak truth to power. A brilliant reminder that collective action against repression – be it political or economic – matters and can make a difference. Sadly, the movements toward inclusive democracy are often overshadowed by violence from both sides. While our better angels may be inspiring more of us to pursue justice, many will still take up the knife or gun. When violent clashes break out, I know that the path we are pursuing at PROOF: Media for Social Justice is right: that in our unique way, we offer citizens an alternative to armed violence. The alternative is clear. Hateful and violent acts, when not condemned, fester, and we see how violence begets violence. PROOF offers a vision, where good begets good and where the path of peace does not signify weakness or capitulation. In the past year, as I have witnessed the upheavals around the world on television and across the Internet, I remind myself of PROOF’s pointed victories in our work to end ethnic violence. In Cambodia and in Bosnia this past year, PROOF partners engaged young people to collect the stories of violence from their elders, to reflect, and to commit to becoming upstanders.

The upstander is dormant in everyone. At PROOF, we help nurture it and bring it to life. We know our influence will grow as more young people in the U.S., Nepal, Cambodia and Colombia reach out to PROOF and invite us to share the lessons we have learned. In 2011, PROOF reached a turning point. We continue to grow as an organization and formalize our operations. Our reach expands daily and we greet each day with an overwhelming sense of responsibility and excitement at the opportunities to engage more people and invite them on the path of peace. Thank you for your support of PROOF in 2011. We look forward to sharing our work with you in 2012 and hope you will continue to support our work. In Peace, Leora Kahn Executive Director

PROOF: Media for Social Justice is a non-profit organization that uses photography and other forms of multi-media as a means to inform and educate global audiences about human rights abuses. Powered by a strong belief that photographic evidence is a unique and potent tool in the fight for human rights, our goal is to empower future generations to work for social change. Beyond its own social awareness campaign, consisting of photo exhibits, books, printed literature, lectures, and public panel discussions, PROOF strategically works with public institutions, including international NGOs whose mission is to raise public awareness of social injustice around the world. PROOF will use every media and communications vehicle available to create a campaign of activism and empowerment to promote social change.

PROOF is a small organization with a powerful mission and a very long reach: • We document visual proof of human tragedies and triumphs in the aftermath of violent conflict • We raise public consciousness of mass violence • We motivate a more engaged response to crises • We educate people in ways they can take action • We work with international organizations to help change policies

“With senses freed, the wise man should act, longing to bring about the welfare and coherence of the world. Therefore, perform unceasingly the works that must be done, for the man detached who labors on to the highest must win through.” - Satyagraha Our vision for this organization centers on observing, sharing, and inspiring: using visual media to share stories of great works in the face of great suffering. Our initiatives directly engage the communities most in need of inspiration. And we are focused on tangible outcomes from our activities. We aspire to visual Satyagraha. Civil, non-violent resistance is often associated with group actions. It is a signal of the resolve we see in the public rallies led by great leaders of recent generations. These are powerful and important actions. But the idea of Satyagraha is as much a personal one as a societal one. It works on any scale. Much as we raise social consciousness through marches and protests, in taking individual action, we signal to the world and ourselves something of our mind and spirit.

This is the power of PROOF: our means are the images we use to tell real stories that motivate us as individuals and as nations; moving stories that look beyond current conflicts and cause us to share further; histories that force us to reflect on our relationship to the world around us. We’re not naïve enough to think we can stop the violence that occurs in the world. Rather, we’re bold enough to think that through the power of visual images and the stories they convey, individuals and nations will act sooner, faster, and with more strength to positively transform people’s lives. We believe this is the need we address: to bring awareness, dialogue, and positive action to the depths of conflict through images and stories of great soul and great beauty. This is also the way we look to touch your hearts and the hearts of those in conflicts. We believe that through photography, dialogue, and action, we can change the way people think and relate in this complex and difficult world.

CHILD SOLIDERS

Our photography exhibit, workshops and lectures documenting the tragedy of Child Soldiers from four continents has been featured at the United Nations, in Italy, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Germany and Canada. Photo: Peter Mantello

DARFUR: PHOTOJOURNALISTS RESPOND

The pictorial chronicle of devastation in Darfur continues to travel and inspire lectures and discussions. It was originally produced in conjunction with the Holocaust Museum Houston. Photo: Lynsey Addario

THE RESCUERS

Our Rescuers were honored at the U.S. Department of State by Secretary Hillary Clinton, and our photography telling their stories traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Switzerland, Rwanda, Spain and across the United States. Development work continues on producing a film version of their stories. Photo: Riccado Gangale

THE LEGACY OF RAPE

In collaboration with TRIAL in Switzerland and United Nations Population Foundation, PROOF is developing programming and a photo exhibition to focus attention on the lack of rights of rape victims. Photo: Pete Muller

CONFERENCES

Conferences on the human rights issues raised in our programs have included: “Picturing Moral Courage”, held in Bosnia and Herzegovina with funding from the Compton Foundation, NATO and the United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Geneva, PROOF participated with its partner, TRIAL, in their conference entitled “International Crimes Against Humanity Facing Justice”. Photo: PROOF

PROOF is evolving, and growing things is something I love to do. I joined the PROOF team a few years ago to help grow an idea. By day, I’m part of the senior team at Edelman Consulting, the management strategy arm of the world’s leading communications agency. There, I develop teams and knowledge to grow and realize our clients’ ideas. Here, I develop our team’s strategy to realize a collective dream of peace, respect, and empathy. PROOF inspires me for three reasons. First, the group’s mission has potential, not just in its existing form, but in what it promises to be to the world. PROOF’s role is observer, moderator, facilitator, educator, and catalyst. Individually, these activities are difficult to do consistently and across different types of conflicts. Addressing these collectively requires something that connects them; a narrative, if you will. This is the gap that PROOF fills. Second, the team inspires me. From the talent of some of the most renowned photojournalists and photographers in the world to the dedication of the staff and the board itself, the team that we’ve assembled is unique in its perspective, its drive, and its ability to combine resources in new ways that impact societies around the world. Finally, PROOF’s impact is both global and local. Many organizations see the world through a single lens that revolves around the places they are present. When there, a group’s impact is intense and real. When they leave, the memory of that impact gradually fades. It is rare that it remains. In contrast, PROOF’s activities center on engaging communities, fostering storytelling, and developing a society’s leaders, expanding the momentum PROOF builds – not only by installing continuing programs, but by changing the way societies engage with themselves. That is a great power of visual imagery: that through it we see our world differently. As Chair of PROOF’s board, I’m proud to point to the impact we’ve had in the past year. Not just the activities we’ve done – although the exhibits and lectures and community initiatives are incredible – but the lives we’ve changed and the conversations we’ve started. When leaders like U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton point to PROOF as an example of the tangible impact organizations can have in the world through images, stories and local programs, I am proud of the work this group does. By the same token, when we give a single Rescuer a way to share his or her story and begin to rebuild a sense of community, I’m proud of the impact we have. David Garrison

“When leaders like Hillary Clinton point to PROOF as an example of the tangible impact organizations can have in the world through images, stories and local programs, I am proud of the work this group does.”

Clockwise from left: Child Soldier exhibit in Japan (Kazue Takahashi); Polish Rescuer Paulina Kisielewska (Sonia Folkmann); Dafur exhibit in Illinois (PROOF); Rescuer with Riccardo Gangale at the Kigali Memorial Museum (PROOF); Child Soldiers exhibit in Mexico City (UN); Dafur exhibit at the Holocaust Museum Houston; Dafur exhibit panel (PROOF); Rescuers exhibit at the University of Geneva (Ruth Glass); Rescuers exhibit in Sarajevo (Sarah Brown); Dafur exhibit at the Boston Public Library; Dafur exhibit panel with photo by Sven Torfinn, Panos Pictures.

Japan Child Soldiers exhibit at the Kyodo News Museum.

Dominican Republic PROOF and the United Nations sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit.

Spain U.S Embassy sponsored The Rescuers exhibit in Madrid and Seville.

Austria PROOF and the United Nations sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit at the Vienna Military Museum.

Italy The UN, Save the Children, along with PROOF, sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit at Capitoline Museum in Rome. Germany Deutsche Welle sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit at the Kunstmuseum in Bonn.

New Hampshire The Darfur exhibit traveled to New Hampshire.

Poland PROOF collected testimonies from Rescuers who were active during the Holocaust.

New York The United Nations exhibited Child Soldiers. Child Soldiers exhibited at JFK High School in Plainview, New York.

Belgium PROOF collected testimonies from Rescuers who were active during the Holocaust. Netherlands PROOF collected testimonies from Rescuers who were active during the Holocaust in cooperation with Anne Frank House. Bosnia and Herzegovina The Rescuers Exhibit was unveiled at the Picturing Moral Courage Conference in Sarajevo, July 14-16, 2011. Sponsored by US Embassy, NATO and the Compton Foundation. England Executive Director, Leora Kahn, lectured on Human Rights and Media at the London School of Arts. Rwanda PROOF collected testimonies for the Rescuers exhibit. PROOF, along with the Kaurana Center, unveiled the Rescuers exhibit at the Kigali Memorial Center.

Texas The Houston Holocaust Museum exhibited the Darfur exhibit â&#x20AC;&#x153;Photojournalists Respond.â&#x20AC;?

Arkansas The Darfur exhibit at Garland County Library. Arizona The Darfur exhibit at Barness Family Jewish Community Center. Illinois Darfur exhibit at the The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. Idaho The Darfur exhibit at the Idaho Historical Museum. Massachusetts The Darfur exhibit at the Boston Public Library. Rescuers exhibit will travel to University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Vermont The Rescuers exhibit traveled to Putney, Brattleboro, SIT (School for International Training).

Cambodia The Rescuers was exhibited and workshops on The Rescuers were held.

San Diego The Rescuers exhibit traveled to San Diego State University.

Mexico Child Soldiers was exhibited in Mexico City at a UN sponsored conference.

Canada Child Soldiers exhibit at Grant MacEwan University, Alberta.

Aegis Trust Amnesty International Center for Human Rights, University of Sarajevo Center for Justice and Reconciliation in Bosnia Genocide Studies Program at Yale Global Centre for Responsiblity to Protect GOOD Holocaust Museum of Houston Karuna Center for Peacebuilding Kigali Memorial Center, Rwanda The Cambodia Landmine Museum Man Up Campaign River Kids, Cambodia TRIAL: Bringing justice to victims of international crimes UN Children and Armed Conflict UNFPA Youth for Peace, Cambodia

Grants US$32,500 (30%) Donations US$65,122 (60%) Fees US$11,000 (10%)

TOTAL

US$108,622

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Exhibit

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Cambodian attendees of our events helped reach out to their communities by creating beautiful bags available on our website or at the PROOF auction.

Individuals are the engine that powers all of PROOF’s work, from college and graduate students who gain experience as they help us reach out, to photographers and creative artists whose work captures the stories we tell.

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