Photo project in Thailand helps tsunami-affected children tell their stories

Most of these youths are from either the minority sea gypsy Moken or migrant communities, so they don’t have local residency and can’t go to school. InSIGHT Out! brings together different cultures, allowing children to interact with youths from other religious and ethnic groups, often for the first time.“Normally, kids from these different communities don’t mix much,” says project manager Jeanne Hallacy. “But they came to understand that they actually have a lot in common whether they are Thai, Burmese or Muslim.”

Win Maw, 12, is the child of two Burmese migrants and didn’t attend school until just last year. With the skills she learned by attending InSIGHT Out!, she won a photo contest organized by National Geographic.

“When it was published, everyone came around to look at the magazine,” said Win. “I felt very proud for my people.”

InSIGHT Out! staff member Htun Htun Naing is also a Burmese migrant. “In the Burmese community, we were very badly affected by the tsunami. But through this project, the children are showing us the way forward,” he said.

To mark the two-year anniversary of the tsunami, some of the best photos and written journals from the InSIGHT Out! project will travel to Asia, Europe and the United States. A smaller exhibition will be held in the villages where disaster struck, such as the province of Aceh, Indonesia, where a parallel InSIGHT Out! effort is under way.

“Projects like this are an important part of the recovery process,” said UNICEF Thailand Communication Officer Mark Thomas. “The work of the InSIGHT Out! team is helping these children overcome deep feelings of loss and insecurity, and showing them that things can and will get better.”