What do you see when you are a 12 year-old child in Palestine? What are the challenges you face on a daily basis? And what is it that brings you joy and makes you smile?

What do you see when you are a 12 year-old child in Palestine? What are the challenges you face on a daily basis? And what is it that brings you joy and makes you smile?

Médecins du Monde with the support of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection Office (ECHO) and the Palestinian community in the West Bank has given the children of Nablus the opportunity to express their feelings and thoughts through the lens of a camera. Twenty children aged 12 years from the villages of Ureef and Einaboos participated in photography workshops during which they took over 6000 pictures of places, people and objects that held significance in their daily life, or were part of a dearly held childhood memory.

These children ‘bear witness’ every day to situations no child should be exposed to. Impediments to access such as checkpoints, roadblocks, and settlements have a strong mental and emotional impact on them. Photography workshops are one of the innovative approaches used by Médecins du Monde to help these children express any repressed feelings they may be experiencing as a result of their harsh living conditions. 

‘Palestine through my eyes’ is the collective visual story of the children, whose creativity and originality is expressed in 90 images. From the symbolism of the cactus plant, to the anguish of losing a beloved park, the life, love and pain of these children is laid out in their pictures. Doctors from Physicians for Human Rights - Israeli organisation and MdM partner on this exhibition in Tel Aviv - shed a different light on the children’s pictures by sharing their view on the situation of  Palestinian communities with whom they work on the field. They show what endangers the well-being of Palestinian children and their difficulties to access health care.  

'Palestine through my Eyes' - Bayt BaNamal, Hangar 26, Tel Aviv Harbor 

Opening night : Monday 25th June 2012 at 7.00 pm 

For more information: exhibition.phr.mdm@gmail.com

June 2012