 "The Call" is the story of Rudi Okot, a refugee from South Sudan, who I interviewed as a part of a project I was hired to conduct with Mennonite Central Committee Ontario's Private Sponsorship of Refugee Program. I worked for 6 months with refugees sponsored by the organization to write their stories into narratives that both helped them heal through the act of sharing, and was then helpful for the organization to use in various communications tools. |  Captured images of students preparing for and performing musical pieces learned through the Waterloo Region's Community Music School, which makes music lessons accessible to students from all economic backgrounds. These images were used for the website and other promotional material. |  "Family Photo" is the story of the Ruez family, who were forced to flee their home in rural Colombia. The family wanted to share their story through a story project I was hired to do through Mennonite Central Committee's Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. I worked for 6 months with refugees sponsored by the organization to write their stories into narratives that both helped them heal through the act of sharing, for the organization's various communications tools. |
---|
 "We All Come From Somewhere" - “As a child in a time of war, when you hear your name you do not resist the call, you just go.” Rudi Okot shares these words at a bustling Kitchener Tim Hortons, nearly ten years after he came to Canada as a refugee. In a few weeks Okot will cross the ocean again, this time in the other direction, to work with refugees in the Middle East. |  Captured the vibrancy of diversity at this celebration held in honour of refugees who have struggled immensely to build home in a strange land, Canada. Reception House in Kitchener hosted the celebration. |  "Thank you Carolyn Gray for sharing your work with us! Carolyn, who's shown here hanging her exhibit, chosen by art committee member, Sharon Woodley also shown here, is displaying two dozen images that she photographed while working in the West Bank with the International Women's Peace Service."
The exhibition was open for a one month period in the fall of 2015. |
---|
 "It Takes a City: Refugee Resettlement in WR - “I love Kitchener-Waterloo,” Jawad Ghabra says with a smile, while we chat in his restaurant, Shawerma Plus. Ghabra came to Canada to help his Syrian family run their now award-winning restaurant, and as the aroma of falafel wafts around us, he explains that “once you love a place, you want to give back.” So when a friend came into the restaurant one day with the idea to sponsor a refugee family, Ghabra immediately agreed. “I’m in, 100 per cent...” |  Edited devotional book written by Ian Howes on the history of music as it relates to The Salvation Army. |  During World Refugee Awareness Month in June 2015, I exhibited a collection of my photography taken during my human rights documentation work in the West Bank with International Women's Peace Service. Part of the exhibit's caption reads "You will see in her photos celebrations of the everyday, and the oppressive architecture of colonization..." Amidst tensions that colour every day for those who live in this region, there are also the everyday moments of eating, playing, laughing, and living. |
---|
 "Inside Waterloo Region's Sexual Assault Centre: A community that cares is aware of abuse" - In the heart of St. Mary’s General Hospital, tucked away behind the hustle and bustle of triage, is a room with no hand sanitizer dispensers on the wall, no cold laminate floors and no cries heard through a thin curtain. Inside, the soft glow, comfy couches, framed pictures of flowers and lush green plants offer safety from the sterility of the hospital and the bitter February winds. As a part of the... |  "Artin’ Around K-Town with Terry Walter" -
Terry Walters will tell you he’s not great with words. He’ll also tell you he’s not an artist. Read past his humility, however, and you’ll discover that Walters has mastered the art of living out his words and creating from the heart.
A self-taught painter, Walters’s works are dynamic and imaginative, yet somehow still uncomplicated. He enthusiastically tells his story by pulling out the paintings that best explain it... |
---|