Christchurch children tell their stories in earthquake photo exhibit

Jade Harrison-Best, 12 years, South New Brighton School – “This is my Earthquake Dog. We adopted her after February 22nd.”

MANILA, Philippines – The New Zealand Embassy, in cooperation with UNICEF, is bringing to Manila the photography exhibition entitled “Christchurch: See Through My Eyes”.

The exhibition showcases photographs taken by 24 children from Christchurch, New Zealand, and illustrates how the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes affected their lives and communities.

Tom Hoare, 11 years, Mt Pleasant School – “Driving in my community is a lot harder than usual.”

New Zealand Ambassador to the Philippines Reuben Levermore said: “We hope that the exhibition will encourage people to reflect on how best to prepare for disasters, including here in the Philippines.”

New Zealand is a long-standing development partner of the Philippines. The New Zealand Aid Programme supports disaster risk reduction and management projects in the Philippines aimed at building greater resilience against future disasters. New Zealand has also extended humanitarian assistance to communities affected by natural disasters, including Tropical Storms Bopha and Washi, which devastated parts of the southern Philippines in each of the past two years.  This includes support for UNICEF activities.

Karina Croitoru, 11 years, St Martins School – “A little help from steel containers keep Sacred Heart Cathedral up.”

For his part, UNICEF Philippines Representative Tomoo Hozumi remarked: “The countries on the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’ – be it the Philippines, New Zealand, or Japan – share the challenge of high susceptibility to major disasters, which is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Forms of expressive activity, such as photography, help in the psychosocial recovery of the affected children. I hope this exhibition enhances understanding, compassion and commitment to disaster awareness and preparedness.”

For the “See Through My Eyes” exhibition, the young photographers, aged 11 to 14, participated in workshops led by professional photographer and ICT educator Stuart Hale, from whom they learned basic skills for taking quality digital photos and how to compose a shot to communicate their thoughts and ideas. Every young photographer also provided a caption to their photos.

“See Through My Eyes” will run from June 21 to July 5 at the Water Dragon Gallery, Yuchengco Museum in Makati City.