Study Abroad alums empower young women through photo book
Friday, December 8, 2006
By: Gibbs Rehlen

Lightbox: Expressions of Hope From Young Women in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi

After spending a semester in Kenya, Emily Verellan and Karen Austrian realized that they could

Young women in Kenya reflect on their lives and empower themselves through photography.

go back and make a difference. While on SIT Study Abroad’s Kenya: Development, Health and Society program in 2001, Emily worked with Nairobi street children and Karen worked in reproductive health. These months living and working in Kenya left both of them with a desire to use their combined skills and experience to implement innovative programs specifically for young women. Five years later, Emily and Karen founded the Binti Pamoja (Daughters United) Center, a reproductive health and women’s rights program for teenage girls in the Kibera slum of Nairobi Kenya, and Emily has recently published a book titled LightBox. 

Lightbox is a collection of photographs and essays by young women in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi. The book is comprised entirely of photographs taken by Binti Pamoja’s members and essays they have written to accompany those photos. All of the pictures were taken with disposable or simple point-and-shoot cameras during the period of 2002-2004. Most of the photographers had never before held a camera, and were provided less than two hours of basic training. Their expressions offer a candid look at the lives of young women in poverty.

Kibera is often referred to as a cramped and dangerous slum where basic services such as water, electricity, education, health care and sanitation are minimal or non-existent. It is a breeding ground for water-born diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which commonly thrive because of poor sanitation and overcrowding.  Prevalence of HIV/AIDS is also high. Women are often treated as property and given little or no opportunity to make decisions about their lives or bodies.

Despite their daily circumstances, the young women featured in Lightbox use photography as a way to reflect their lives and grow into community leaders.  Lightbox demonstrates the value of empowering a young woman and is a celebration of the victories these young women achieve every day. Their photography and essays display a powerful message one of struggle, perseverance and hope.

You can buy the book on-line  at http://www.bintipamoja.org/.

LightBox was funded completely through a grant from the Fledging Fund. Due to the grant funding, one hundred percent of the donations go to support The Binti Pamoja Center Scholarship Fund, which helps Binti Pamoja members attend high school. Three copies of LightBox will fund a one-year scholarship for a girl in Binti. To learn more about the The Binti Pamoja Center Scholarship, please visit the Binti Pamoja website.

World Learning CEO and SIT President, Carol Bellamy, wrote the foreword to Lightbox.

LightBox has been funded in full through a grant from The Fledgling Fund.

LightBox was edited and published by SIT Study Abroad alum Emily Verellen.

Designed by Allyson Murphy