The Young Haitian Documentary Photographers Group

In March of 2006, Jeff travelled to Haiti as a volunteer. His host ‘Rayjon Sharecare’ has built schools, health centres, mills and conducts community development workshops with youth and others in the community. Before this trip, Jeff watched the documentary film “Born into Brothels.” He was inspired. Amazing things can happen when cameras are put into the hands of youth. Although the purpose of his trip was to volunteer on a road crew in the mountains above the town of St. Marc, Jeff also brought cameras and conducted two photography workshops for students. This was the first time these young photographers had used cameras.

The Photographers

The Young Haitian Photographers are a group of high school aged students from the Saint Marc region of Haiti engaged in community development initiatives through the Rayjon Sharecare Agency.  Rayjon is a Sarnia based organization that is partial funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The students of St. Marc attend community development workshops hosted by the agency. They have created theatrical plays including song and dance, based on interviews of their community elders. One photographer hiked from St. Marc for 4 hours to his mountain community to take his photographs!! Forgetting his camera he repeated the 7 1/2 hour return trip to ensure his camera and work were included in the project.

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