Davis Projects for Peace?'Peace Through My Eyes'

Elana Hazghia '10 and Verena Bunge '11 spent the beginning of their summer vacations making philanthropy into an art form.

For three weeks at the end of May and beginning of June, Hazghia and Bunge ran a photography class for children in San Marcos La Laguna and Guatemala City, with the underlying theme, "Paz a trav s de mis ojos" (Peace Through My Eyes). The children met with teachers and artists, learning about photography and how to create with digital cameras. At the end of the session in San Marcos, Hazghia and Bunge hosted an exhibition of all the students' work, to rave reviews from their families, neighbors, and fellow residents.

Initially, the Skidmore students had planned to hold an auction of the work in Saratoga Springs this coming fall, whose proceeds would be brought to San Marcos La Laguna to buy one water filter for each family, since Lake Atitl n is a much polluted water source for the area.

After the success of the final exhibition in San Marcos La Laguna, however, Hazghia says, "We are still going to exhibit in Saratoga, but people will have the chance to order prints." She notes that there are also tentative plans for an auction in Guatemala City, where they had organized a group of older students in a similar program of painting, photographing, and writing about their thoughts on peace. Since the start of the project, another school in Guatemala City has also volunteered to take part in the program.

Hazghia and Bunge have created a blog to document and publicize their efforts, in addition to a planned documentary created from footage taken in Guatemala City and San Marcos La Laguna.

The two students were inspired by the 2004 documentary by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, "Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Kids." Briski had come to Sonagchi, Calcutta to photograph the red-light district, but began cultivating friendships with the children of prostitutes. Briski's impromptu photography classes with the children transformed into her crusade to extricate them from the slums. 

Hazghia and Bunge's project was sponsored by the Davis Projects for Peace, created in 2007 by Kathryn W. Davis. An internationalist and philanthropist, she commemorated her 100th birthday by committing over $1 million to fund 100 Projects for Peace to be proposed and put into action by undergraduate students and select graduate students.

Though Bunge remains in Guatemala, Hazghia has returned to her home in Great Neck, N.Y. "A lot of people have expressed interest in buying prints," she says, "so I'm going to try to get exhibition space in the local arts center that I used to work at. As for the future, the sky is the limit. We have had a lot of support from so many people. After the exhibitions are over, we would like to set up a website where people can buy prints online."

But don't expect to be able to search the prints anytime soon. "We don't want to make that too public just yet," Hazghia confesses. "We want people to come to the exhibitions!"

Visit the Peace Through My Eyes blog to learn more, or click here to read Hazghia's and Bunge's project proposal.