PROOF: Media for Social Justice Annual Report 2011

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The year in review: read about PROOF's work in 2011, and what we hope to achieve in the year to come.

Transcript of PROOF: Media for Social Justice Annual Report 2011

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Letter from the Executive Director 05Our Mission 06A Unifying Vision 07The Need PROOF Fills 07Our Programs 08Letter from David Garrison, Chair 09PROOF exhibit photographs 10-11Our Reach 12Partners 13 2011 Funding 13How To Help 14

Board of DirectorsDavid Garrison | ChairRachael Barrett | Vice ChairPaul Levitz | TreasurerLeslie Thurman | SecretaryRobert Stein, Esquire

Advisory BoardJonathan Alter | Bloomberg ReviewLouis Bickford | Robert F Kennedy Center for Justiceand Human RightsAdrian Edwards | Panos Pictures Joel Ehrlich | Harmony GroupPhyllis Ehrlich | Time Warner Cable MediaPaula Green | Karuna Center for PeacebuildingAlex Gibney | Film maker Fran Kaufman | Art+Banking Ed Kashi | VII Photo Agency Ben Kiernan | Yale UniversityPaul Lowe | London College of CommunicationPeter Mantello | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific UniversityTali Nates | Johannesburg Holocaust CentreEdward Robinson | Los Angeles County Museum of ArtMarc Skvirsky | Facing History and OurselvesJohn Withers, Jr. | Former United States Ambassador

StaffAaron Clendening | Special Project AssociateRobyn Mak | Program CoordinatorWillhemina Wahlin | DesignerLeigh Wells | AdministratorFran Schreiber | Program OfficerAmy Hopper | Special Events Teddy Gusman | Educational & Technical Advisor

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Dear Friends, In many ways, 2011 was a watershed year for freedom across the globe. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement in the U.S., we have seen citizens come together and speak truth to power. A brilliant reminder that collective action against repression – be it political or economic – matters and can make a difference.

Sadly, the movements toward inclusive democracy are often overshadowed by violence from both sides. While our better angels may be inspiring more of us to pursue justice, many will still take up the knife or gun. When violent clashes break out, I know that the path we are pursuing at PROOF: Media for Social Justice is right: that in our unique way, we offer citizens an alternative to armed violence.

The alternative is clear. Hateful and violent acts, when not condemned, fester, and we see how violence begets violence. PROOF offers a vision, where good begets good and where the path of peace does not signify weakness or capitulation.

In the past year, as I have witnessed the upheavals around the world on television and across the Internet, I remind myself of PROOF’s pointed victories in our work to end ethnic violence. In Cambodia and in Bosnia this past year, PROOF partners engaged young people to collect the stories of violence from their elders, to reflect, and to commit to becoming upstanders.

The upstander is dormant in everyone. At PROOF, we help nurture it and bring it to life. We know our influence will grow as more young people in the U.S., Nepal, Cambodia and Colombia reach out to PROOF and invite us to share the lessons we have learned.

In 2011, PROOF reached a turning point. We continue to grow as an organization and formalize our operations. Our reach expands daily and we greet each day with an overwhelming sense of responsibility and excitement at the opportunities to engage more people and invite them on the path of peace.

Thank you for your support of PROOF in 2011. We look forward to sharing our work with you in 2012 and hope you will continue to support our work.

In Peace, Leora Kahn Executive Director

Leora Kahn

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PROOF is a small organization with a powerful mission and a very long reach:

PROOF: Media for Social Justice is a non-profit organization that uses photography and other forms of multi-media as a means to inform and educate global audiences about human rights abuses. Powered by a strong belief that photographic evidence is a unique and potent tool in the fight for human rights, our goal is to empower future generations to work for social change.

Beyond its own social awareness campaign, consisting of photo exhibits, books, printed literature, lectures, and public panel discussions, PROOF strategically works with public institutions, including international NGOs whose mission is to raise public awareness of social injustice around the world. PROOF will use every media and communications vehicle available to create a campaign of activism and empowerment to promote social change.

• We document visual proof of human tragedies and triumphs in the aftermath of violent conflict

• We raise public consciousness of mass violence

• We motivate a more engaged response to crises

• We educate people in ways they can take action

• We work with international organizations to help change policies

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Our vision for this organization centers on observing, sharing, and inspiring: using visual media to share stories of great works in the face of great suffering. Our initiatives directly engage the communities most in need of inspiration. And we are focused on tangible outcomes from our activities. We aspire to visual Satyagraha.

Civil, non-violent resistance is often associated with group actions. It is a signal of the resolve we see in the public rallies led by great leaders of recent generations. These are powerful and important actions. But the idea of Satyagraha is as much a personal one as a societal one. It works on any scale. Much as we raise social consciousness through marches and protests, in taking individual action, we signal to the world and ourselves something of our mind and spirit.

This is the power of PROOF: our means are the images we use to tell real stories that motivate us as individuals and as nations; moving stories that look beyond current conflicts and cause us to share further; histories that force us to reflect on our relationship to the world around us.

We’re not naïve enough to think we can stop the violence that occurs in the world. Rather, we’re bold enough to think that through the power of visual images and the stories they convey, individuals and nations will act sooner, faster, and with more strength to positively transform people’s lives.

We believe this is the need we address: to bring awareness, dialogue, and positive action to the depths of conflict through images and stories of great soul and great beauty. This is also the way we look to touch your hearts and the hearts of those in conflicts. We believe that through photography, dialogue, and action, we can change the way people think and relate in this complex and difficult world.

“With senses freed, the wise man should act, longing to bring about the welfare and coherence of the world. Therefore, perform unceasingly the works that must be done, for the man detached who labors on to the highest must win through.”

- Satyagraha

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CHILD SOLIDERSOur photography exhibit, workshops and lectures documenting the tragedy of Child Soldiers from four continents has been featured at the United Nations, in Italy, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Germany and Canada.

DARFUR: PHOTOJOURNALISTS RESPONDThe pictorial chronicle of devastation in Darfur continues to travel and inspire lectures and discussions. It was originally produced in conjunction with the Holocaust Museum Houston.

THE RESCUERSOur Rescuers were honored at the U.S. Department of State by Secretary Hillary Clinton, and our photography telling their stories traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Switzerland, Rwanda, Spain and across the United States. Development work continues on producing a film version of their stories.

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THE LEGACY OF RAPEIn collaboration with TRIAL in Switzerland and United Nations Population Foundation, PROOF is developing programming and a photo exhibition to focus attention on the lack of rights of rape victims.

CONFERENCES Conferences on the human rights issues raised in our programs have included: “Picturing Moral Courage”, held in Bosnia and Herzegovina with funding from the Compton Foundation, NATO and the United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Geneva, PROOF participated with its partner, TRIAL, in their conference entitled “International Crimes Against Humanity Facing Justice”.

Photo: Riccado Gangale

Photo: PROOF

Photo: Pete Muller

Photo: Lynsey AddarioPhoto: Peter Mantello

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“When leaders like Hillary Clinton point to PROOF as an example of the tangible impact organizations can have in the world through images, stories and local programs, I am proud of the work this group does.”

PROOF is evolving, and growing things is something I love to do. I joined the PROOF team a few years ago to help grow an idea. By day, I’m part of the senior team at Edelman Consulting, the management strategy arm of the world’s leading communications agency. There, I develop teams and knowledge to grow and realize our clients’ ideas. Here, I develop our team’s strategy to realize a collective dream of peace, respect, and empathy.

PROOF inspires me for three reasons. First, the group’s mission has potential, not just in its existing form, but in what it promises to be to the world. PROOF’s role is observer, moderator, facilitator, educator, and catalyst. Individually, these activities are difficult to do consistently and across different types of conflicts. Addressing these collectively requires something that connects them; a narrative, if you will. This is the gap that PROOF fills.

Second, the team inspires me. From the talent of some of the most renowned photojournalists and photographers in the world to the dedication of the staff and the board itself, the team that we’ve assembled is unique in its perspective, its drive, and its ability to combine resources in new ways that impact societies around the world.

Finally, PROOF’s impact is both global and local. Many organizations see the world through a single lens that revolves around the places they are present. When there, a group’s impact is intense and real. When they leave, the memory of that impact gradually fades. It is rare that it remains. In contrast, PROOF’s activities center on engaging communities, fostering storytelling, and developing a society’s leaders, expanding the momentum PROOF builds – not only by installing continuing programs, but by changing the way societies engage with themselves. That is a great power of visual imagery: that through it we see our world differently.

As Chair of PROOF’s board, I’m proud to point to the impact we’ve had in the past year. Not just the activities we’ve done – although the exhibits and lectures and community initiatives are incredible – but the lives we’ve changed and the conversations we’ve started. When leaders like U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton point to PROOF as an example of the tangible impact organizations can have in the world through images, stories and local programs, I am proud of the work this group does. By the same token, when we give a single Rescuer a way to share his or her story and begin to rebuild a sense of community, I’m proud of the impact we have.

David Garrison

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Clockwise from left: Child Soldier exhibit in Japan (Kazue Takahashi); Polish Rescuer Paulina Kisielewska (Sonia Folkmann); Dafur exhibit in Illinois (PROOF); Rescuer with Riccardo Gangale at the Kigali Memorial Museum (PROOF); Child Soldiers exhibit in Mexico City (UN); Dafur exhibit at the Holocaust Museum Houston; Dafur exhibit panel (PROOF); Rescuers exhibit at the University of Geneva (Ruth Glass); Rescuers exhibit in Sarajevo (Sarah Brown); Dafur exhibit at the Boston Public Library; Dafur exhibit panel with photo by Sven Torfinn, Panos Pictures.

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JapanChild Soldiers exhibit at the Kyodo News Museum.

SpainU.S Embassy sponsored The Rescuers exhibit in Madrid and Seville.

Italy The UN, Save the Children, along with PROOF, sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit at Capitoline Museum in Rome.

Germany Deutsche Welle sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit at the Kunstmuseum in Bonn.

PolandPROOF collected testimonies from Rescuers who were active during the Holocaust.

Belgium PROOF collected testimonies from Rescuers who were active during the Holocaust.

NetherlandsPROOF collected testimonies from Rescuers who were active during the Holocaust in cooperation with Anne Frank House.

Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe Rescuers Exhibit was unveiled at the Picturing Moral Courage Conference in Sarajevo, July 14-16, 2011. Sponsored by US Embassy, NATO and the Compton Foundation.

EnglandExecutive Director, Leora Kahn, lectured on Human Rights and Media at the London School of Arts.

RwandaPROOF collected testimonies for the Rescuers exhibit. PROOF, along with the Kaurana Center, unveiled the Rescuers exhibit at the Kigali Memorial Center.

Cambodia The Rescuers was exhibited and workshops on The Rescuers were held.

Mexico Child Soldiers was exhibited in Mexico City at a UN sponsored conference.

Dominican RepublicPROOF and the United Nations sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit.

AustriaPROOF and the United Nations sponsored the Child Soldiers exhibit at the Vienna Military Museum.

Texas The Houston Holocaust Museum exhibited the Darfur exhibit “Photojournalists Respond.”

New Hampshire The Darfur exhibit traveled to New Hampshire.

New York The United Nations exhibited Child Soldiers. Child Soldiers exhibited at JFK High School in Plainview, New York.

Arkansas The Darfur exhibit at Garland County Library.

Arizona The Darfur exhibit at Barness Family Jewish Community Center.

IllinoisDarfur exhibit at the The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

Idaho The Darfur exhibit at the Idaho Historical Museum.

Massachusetts The Darfur exhibit at the Boston Public Library. Rescuers exhibit will travel to University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Vermont The Rescuers exhibit traveled to Putney, Brattleboro, SIT (School for International Training).

San Diego The Rescuers exhibit traveled to San Diego State University.

Canada Child Soldiers exhibit at Grant MacEwan University, Alberta.

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Grants US$32,500 (30%)Donations US$65,122 (60%)Fees US$11,000 (10%)

TOTAL US$108,622

Aegis TrustAmnesty InternationalCenter for Human Rights, University of SarajevoCenter for Justice and Reconciliation in BosniaGenocide Studies Program at YaleGlobal Centre for Responsiblity to ProtectGOODHolocaust Museum of HoustonKaruna Center for PeacebuildingKigali Memorial Center, RwandaThe Cambodia Landmine MuseumMan Up CampaignRiver Kids, CambodiaTRIAL: Bringing justice to victims of international crimes

UN Children and Armed ConflictUNFPAYouth for Peace, Cambodia

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BidAttend PROOF’s major annual fundraising event, our photography auction, and bid on incredible photography for your home, office or for gifts.

VolunteerDonate Just click on our website:

www.proof.org

Individuals are the engine that powers all of PROOF’s work, from college and graduate students who gain experience as they help us reach out, to photographers and creative artists whose work captures the stories we tell.

Cambodian attendees of our events helped reach out to their communities by creating beautiful bags available on our website or at the PROOF auction.Connect with Riverkids

Arrange for one of PROOF’s exhibitions to travel to an institution in your area. Check them out on our website for more information.Exhibit

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• We document visual proof of human tragedies and triumphs in the aftermath of violent conflict

• We raise public consciousness of mass violence• We motivate a more engaged response to crises• We educate people in ways to take action

www.proof.org | 3 Parkway Larchmont, NY 10538 | Tel: 914-833-2543

PROOF is a small organization with a powerful mission and a very long reach: