UNICEF photo exhibition ‘A Far Cry’ launches September 6

This month sees the launch of  ‘A Far Cry, Children in Emergencies’ – a UNICEF photo exhibition.

Opening September 6, Children in Emergencies is an exhibition of UNICEF’s photographs that show the impact of emergencies on children in the developing world.

Each year, UNICEF responds to more than 200 emergencies around the world. It is children who all too often experience the worst consequences of these man-made and natural disasters.

Many of the photos at the exhibition,  located at the Wellington Central Library have a profound story behind them.

For example the exhibition’s signature photo is of three girls leaving the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people near El Fasher city,  in North Darfur, to gather firewood. The journey is a seven hour trek.

Gruelling enough you might think, for children and teenagers – but girls as young as eight have been attacked, raped or killed walking this route. Two million people were displaced, fleeing terror attacks that include killings, abductions, gang rapes, looting and the burning of villages during this civil conflict, which began in 2003. (Photographer Ron Haviv)

Another photo (by Roger Le Moyne) in the exhibition shows a Congolese boy Mwindo, 13, a child-soldier who spent three years in the militia, where his job was to make small marks with a razor blade on the arms and foreheads of new recruits, a ritual thought to protect them from bullets. During a confrontation with other insurgents Mwindo killed a man who lunged at him in a forest. Two of his friends were also killed. Mwindo would like to have a small roadside business, selling goods so that he can return to school one day.

The third photo (by Giacomo Pirozzi) shows a Palestinian boy taking a photo of a teenage girl Jamila Al-Habbash, 15.

Jamila was struck by a missile while she and other children played on the roof of her home during the January 2009 military incursion. Her sister, Shaza, was killed. The conflict killed 1,300 Gazans, including 430 children.

The exhibition runs from September 6-20th.  It will be launched by David Shearer MP, former deputy head of UN Iraq.

Tell us what you think of the photos in this blog; we’d love to hear your opinion.