In an effort to reward the 23 children of ‘Witness Project-Guyana’ for their roles in trying to stop violence against women and children, Trans Guyana Airways on Thursday, last, awarded them an all-paid expenses trip to the Kaieteur Falls.
According to Ms. Margaret Clemons, the head of the foundation under which the project is being executed, the members, all of whom are children, are working to send a bold message to adults that violence against women and children must end.
She added that the children have also been working on the Witness Project to eliminate gender-based and child-directed violence via art.
Author Archives: witness1
Margaret Clemons Foundation begins workshop on domestic violence–following up on famous ‘eyes’ poster project
THE local chapter of the New York-based Margaret Clemons Foundation yesterday began a domestic violence workshop for children aimed at reducing domestic and gender-based violence, and child abuse in society. Some of the children who participated in the workshop yesterday.The initiative is a continuous community outreach project for youths, and the aim of the foundation is to use art to end this growing scourge in society.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle during an interview at the local offices situated at the Help & Shelter Building on Homestretch Avenue, Ms. Margaret Clemons, founder of the organisation, said it is her belief that the scourge would best be eradicated by taking a different approach to the situation.
“We believe that by using the arts and using children we could be able to make bolder statements that adults can hear and look at through the visual programme. It’s a photography programme, it’s something that will hit home,” she stressed.
Caught in the crossfire
Andy Hunte is dead at two months old. He died on Tuesday night as a result of being caught in the crossfire of physical abuse being meted out by one of his parents to the other. According to a report carried in this newspaper, Andy Hunte was presented at the Georgetown Public Hospital with lacerations to his body and a gaping wound to the head. He was unconscious and subsequently succumbed. Andy Hunte’s short miserable life is an extreme example of the effect violence between adults—especially in home—has on children. In this case Andy Hunte lost his life; often, children lose their childhood.
While there are systems in place to deal with the abuse of children and while violence against women is slowly being addressed, the plight of children caught in the crossfire, who may not be actually physically harmed, has mostly been ignored despite the fact that it is well known that they can be mentally and emotionally affected by what they see and hear.
The Margaret Clemons Foundation’s Witness Project, which is closely aligned with the international project Inside Out by French artist/photographer JR, used his motto, “what we see changes who we are”, in its massive roll out at the end of January this year of huge photo/posters around Georgetown. The posters of eyes and faces taken by 15 children who have been involved with the project since last year, sought to use art to get the message out there that children are seeing and experiencing violence and that it changes them. This aspect of the project was successfully executed—hundreds of posters were pasted up around the city—and it started conversations. But where do we as a society go from here? Children who are witnessing violence need more.
Honouring women in an Age of Participation
– US Ambassador to Guyana, D. Brent Hardt
ON the occasion of International Women’s Day, observed worldwide yesterday, United States Ambassador to Guyana, D. Brent Hardt, has assured that the US Embassy will continue to reach out into the Guyanese community to support and recognize women who are making a difference. US Ambassador Brent Hardt. To this end, he said the embassy is planning to host a symposium focusing on ‘Strategies for Successful Women’ that will bring together women from across the social spectrum to discuss their distinctive challenges and opportunities.
Ambassador Hardt likened women to “a cornerstone of America’s foreign policy, because the simple fact is that no country can hope to move ahead if it is leaving half of its people behind.
“Women and girls drive our economies.
They build peace and prosperity,” he said, noting that investing in women means investing in global economic progress, political stability, and greater prosperity for everyone.
“As we honour women of courage, let us renew our resolve to work for the cause of equality each and every day of the year,” he added.
Referring to remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Ambassador said they have particular resonance as people around the world celebrate International Women’s Day and continue to make strides for women’s progress.
“What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish,” Secretary of State Clinton said.
Ambassador Hardt recalled too, that in December, President Obama released the first-ever U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, charting a roadmap for how the United States will accelerate and institutionalize efforts across the government to advance women’s participation in preventing conflict and keeping peace.
This initiative, he said, “represents a fundamental change in how the United States will approach its diplomatic, military, and development-based support to women in areas of conflict, by ensuring that their perspectives and considerations of gender are woven into the fabric of how the United States approaches peace processes, conflict prevention and the protection of civilians.
The US Embassy also sought to participate in non-governmental initiatives such as the “Witness Project,” launched by the Margaret Clemons Foundation that used photography of eyes of children and the faces of Guyanese from all walks of life to spark a nationwide discussion on domestic violence and how to reduce its incidence.”
U.S. Embassy Participates in WITNESS Project Roll Out
GEORGETOWN – The WITNESS Project rolled out its posters on Saturday, January 28, with the help of Ambassador Brent Hardt, who volunteered to display posters along the sea wall. The U.S. Embassy also showed its support for the WITNESS Project by displaying posters along the Embassy walls.
Headed by the Margaret Clemons Foundation, the WITNESS Project uses photos taken by Guyanese youth to create posters that send a message to adults: that children are the most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses to violence.
In August, 15 Guyanese children between the ages of 10 and 17 were given cameras and set out to capture the faces of Guyanese youth. These images were created into posters, which were installed throughout Georgetown on January 26 – 28.
Guyana’s participation in this project is unique because it is the only country to use child photographers.
WITNESS Project is a participant in the artist JR’s global project to change the world through art called INSIDE OUT. To thank the Guyanese youth for their involvement, JR surprised the volunteers with a 30-second video thanking them for their efforts.
Witness Project on efforts against gender- based, child- directed violence rolled off.
Georgetown : The Margaret Clemons Foundation (MCF) rolled out the first phase of its “Inside Out Witness Project”, which aims to draw attention to and spark conversation about the effects of adult human behaviour, particularly gender based and child directed violence on society’s most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses, children.
Ministers of Human Services and Social Security and Education, Jennifer Webster and Priya Manickchand respectively today joined 15 Guyanese children, US Ambassador Brendt Hardt and Canadian High Commissioner, David Devine, and several volunteers yesterday as they lined the sea walls at Turkeyen with artwork depicting the human eyes, symbolising the firm stance to ensure that abuse and violence against children and women, do not go unnoticed.
Minister Manickchand in a brief comment to the Government Information Agency (GINA) emphasised that in their actions, adults need to be more conscious of the fact that children are witnessing everything, both good and bad that is happening in society so as to ensure that negative and harmful behavioural patterns are not imparted to them.
Guyana among largest global participants in efforts against gender-based, child-directed violence -Witness Project rolled out
The Margaret Clemons Foundation (MCF) today rolled out the first phase of its Inside Out Witness Project, which aims to draw attention to and spark conversation about the effects of adult human behaviour, particularly gender based and child directed violence on society’s most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses, children.
Ministers of Human Services and Social Security and Education, Jennifer Webster and Priya Manickchand respectively today joined 15 Guyanese children, US Ambassador Brendt Hardt and Canadian High Commissioner, David Devine, and several volunteers as they lined the sea walls at Turkeyen with artwork depicting the human eyes, symbolising the firm stance to ensure that abuse and violence against children and women, do not go unnoticed.
Anti-violence project Witness set for massive roll out
A project which started here in August and which uses the arts in the battle to stop violence against women and children, has received a major boost that could see the work of Guyanese children highlighted the world over.
The Witness Project, through which the Margaret Clemons Foundation (MCF) seeks to draw attention to and spark conversations about the effects of adult human behaviour, particularly gender based and child directed violence on society’s most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses, our children, is part of the global photography project by the French artist JR called Inside Out.
Witness has been adopted by the New York-based technology, entertainment and design (TED) Prize. As a result, video footage of the roll out of the project is to be included in a documentary film that will reach an international audience. The roll out, which was slated to be held next month, has been pushed back to January 2012, because of the general and regional elections which are also scheduled for next month.
Ambassador Hardt Participates In WITNESS Project
WITNESS Project – Ambassador’s Visit and Photo Session
The Margaret Clemons Foundation invited Ambassador Hardt to visit the School of Nations to have his photograph taken by the WITNESS project photographers. The Ambassador was accompanied by Mrs. Saskia Hardt
Through the WITNESS Project, headed by the Margaret Clemons Foundation, 15 Guyanese children between the ages of 10 and 17 have come together to send a message to adults: that children are the most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses to violence. They were given cameras and set out to capture the faces of Guyanese youth, which will be displayed throughout Georgetown in January 2012.
WITNESS Project is a participant in the artist JR’s global project to change the world through art called INSIDE OUT.
Minister Manickchand Meets with Sesame Workshop
…about bringing Sesame Street’s educational programming to Guyana
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand, and Bayney Karran, Guyana’s permanent ambassador to the United States, last Thursday met with senior executives at Sesame Workshop in New York, New York, to discuss collaboration with the Government of Guyana to bring Sesame Street’s educational television programming to Guyana’s children. The meeting was facilitated by the Margaret Clemons Foundation, one of the Government of Guyana’s partners in ending violence against women and children. Attending the meeting from Sesame were Mel Ming, Chief Operating Officer; Charlotte Cole, Senior Vice President Global Education; Lisa Annunziata, Vice President Production Operations Global TV; Jorge Baxter, Director International Research; Christopher Capobianco, Senior Director Project Management; Nancy Stevenson, Director Character Design; and Alysia Christiani, Studio Manager Marketing & Creative Services