2007.05.21: May 21, 2007: Headlines: COS - Kyrgyzstan: The Third Goal: Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Courier: RPCV Damian Wampler hopes to paint a more compassionate and realistic picture of this little known region of the world in an upcoming photography exhibit entitled “Fingerprints: Kyrgyzstan’s Living Heritage.”
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2007.05.21: May 21, 2007: Headlines: COS - Kyrgyzstan: The Third Goal: Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Courier: RPCV Damian Wampler hopes to paint a more compassionate and realistic picture of this little known region of the world in an upcoming photography exhibit entitled “Fingerprints: Kyrgyzstan’s Living Heritage.”
RPCV Damian Wampler hopes to paint a more compassionate and realistic picture of this little known region of the world in an upcoming photography exhibit entitled “Fingerprints: Kyrgyzstan’s Living Heritage.”
In the fall of 2005 Damian traveled to Kyrgyzstan on a Fulbright research scholarship to study the relationship between Islam and local government. It was a homecoming for Damian, who had served as a Peace Corps volunteer between 1999 and 2001. While doing research he learned of a small organization called Babushka Adoption which strove to restore dignity to elderly of Kyrgyzstan by supplementing their meager government pensions with additional funds. This organization found sponsors from other country’s willing to donate just $10 a month to help relieve some of Kyrgyzstan’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens, many of whom have been forgotten by their families now in Russia. As Damian’s own grandfather became ill back in America, he decided to contact Babushka Adoption and make grandparents the theme of his next photographic exhibition.
RPCV Damian Wampler hopes to paint a more compassionate and realistic picture of this little known region of the world in an upcoming photography exhibit entitled “Fingerprints: Kyrgyzstan’s Living Heritage.”
Discovering the real people of Kyrgyzstan
05/21/2007
Central Asia is reaching mainstream American audiences in Hollywood hits such as last year’s comedy ‘Borat’ with Sacha Baron Cohen’s and the action epic “Nomad.” But Returned Peace Corps volunteer and Park Slope resident Damian Wampler hopes to paint a more compassionate and realistic picture of this little known region of the world in an upcoming photography exhibit entitled “Fingerprints: Kyrgyzstan’s Living Heritage.”
The exhibit will feature photographs of Kyrgyzstan’s aged and elderly that have lived though the onset of communism, a war against fascist Germany, Stalin’s purges, the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. Each man and woman has his or her own story to tell, one that is personal and uniquely free of national propaganda. These people often care for their grandchildren while their parents are working, handing down values, language and history. And each of these men and women live without their families, abandoned, in Kyrgyzstan’s poorest region.
In the fall of 2005 Damian traveled to Kyrgyzstan on a Fulbright research scholarship to study the relationship between Islam and local government. It was a homecoming for Damian, who had served as a Peace Corps volunteer between 1999 and 2001. While doing research he learned of a small organization called Babushka Adoption which strove to restore dignity to elderly of Kyrgyzstan by supplementing their meager government pensions with additional funds.
This organization found sponsors from other country’s willing to donate just $10 a month to help relieve some of Kyrgyzstan’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens, many of whom have been forgotten by their families now in Russia. As Damian’s own grandfather became ill back in America, he decided to contact Babushka Adoption and make grandparents the theme of his next photographic exhibition.
Damian traveled to Kyrgyzstan’s very southernmost region and met with Babushka Adoption’s staff. They allowed him to visit several of the women and men receiving aid from sponsors in Switzerland, Germany and America. This exhibit aims to raise awareness for this organization, but also to remind us of the wisdom and distinctiveness of our own grandparents.
Damian returned to the United States in October of 2006. His own grandfather passed away in January.
“Fingerprints: Kyrgyzstan’s Living Heritage” can be seen at Café Sutra, 639 5th Avenue in Park Slope now to June 6. Visit Cafe Sutra on the web at www.mycafesutra.com.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: May, 2007; Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan; Directory of Kyrgyzstan RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kyrgyzstan RPCVs; The Third Goal
When this story was posted in August 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Courier
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Kyrgyzstan; The Third Goal
PCOL37562
13
I am a RPCV (Niger 1986-88). I just finished a documentary titled "Children of Congo: From War to Witches". Here is the synopis of the film:
Over five million people have died during the past decade as a result of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Few people are aware of the unimaginable scale of human suffering, death, and destruction that has occurred in this vast country deep in the heart of Africa. In the aftermath of this brutal war, children have endured the brunt of the suffering. This 67 minute film documents the plight of thousands of street children living in Kinshasa and confirms the wide-spread accusations of child witchcraft, torture and child prostitution. The film also examines the efforts to reintegrate demobilized child soldiers, displaced refugees, and orphaned children following the eruption of the massive Nyiragongo volcano, near the city of Goma in Eastern Congo. These heroic efforts are finally bringing some measure of hope and stability to the lives of the Congolese people.
Please check out the film trailer at: http://www.danballuff.com