Village News

Sunday 9 January 2011

Another review from someone who received the book for Xmas

:::Thanks to Nel Cardinal for her lovely comments about the book:::


"really wanted to thank you for the book of Welcome to my Yard, i understand what you have said in the book, the respect you showed them was blessed, the photography is stunningly beautiful and i found myself, inspired, moved and spiritually in prayer for all those of this earth that are mis-understood and not given the respect and love that they deserve. I recieved this book as a christmas gift from my friend, Naomi, and it will be treasured dearly.

Thank you for the smiling faces and the quick glance of culture and peace that is amoungst these people.

Bless you, "

Nel


If you have a copy of the book please send us your thoughts. We also are looking fro more photos to join our barefoot mosiac on our blog


WTMY Team

Tuesday 21 September 2010

What the kids had to say











money matters!!!

We always knew what we wanted to do with this project. We wanted to give the children’s artwork justice. We wanted people to have the opportunity to see the art they created. We achieved this by publishing the Welcome To My Yard book and by hosting the exhibition. We also wanted to ensure that any profits that we made go back to the photographers and children in similar situations so that it may support their future however small the contribution.

"We are over the moon to tell people that the book sales and profits from the exhibition have so far amounted to almost £1,000! We can’t thank everyone enough for buying the children and young people's work. " Sarah WTMY

As a team we have spent a lot of time thinking about how we should spend the profits to make the best possible use of them. We wanted to ensure that the money goes direct to the people supporting these children wherever possible. Some of the young people have now completed their basic education, some of the young people living on the streets are no longer in the places where they used to be and few people know what has happened to them.

We also wanted to ensure that both collections receive revenue, so we have been trying to eek out what we have between the ex child labour children at CWARDS school and the young people on the street.

What was clear to us was that some of the money should go direct to CWARDS so that a few more children could get the same education opportunities as the photographers of collection one. We also felt that it was better to pay for less children to complete the required 2 years than a larger amount completing just one academic year leaving CWARDS to find funding elsewhere.

That left how we support the street children which has been as complex to answer as is their lives on the street. There are no easy solutions or quick fixes and some people would be shocked to know that many of the young people would choose to continue on the streets if given a choice. We don’t intend to throw money at a situation and hope it resolves itself. This project has always been short term in the hope that people affected by Welcome To My Yard will go on to do inspirational things created from nothing as did the children. Our primary objective has been to promote their work with dignity and respect and we want to continue doing this.
We decided to try and talk with the children themselves...who better?

Street children questionnaires are attached to the next post (had a technical glitch putting them in this post!)