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JR Salutes the WITNESS Project Team in Guyana

JR recorded this video for the fifteen member team of Guyanese children who participated in the INSIDE OUT Project, taking almost 600 pictures which were then pasted on government, civil and cultural locations with a little help from their friends.

The WITNESS Project Team

< Read what they have to say
15 children who make up GUYANA INSIDE OUT WITNESS Project. The WITNESS Project objective is to draw attention to and spark a conversation about the effects of violence on society’s most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses—our children. Chantal and other children selected for their leadership potential were given cameras and when they found a child to photograph they asked their young models: "How do you look when you feel scared?" "How do you look when you feel sad?" "When you feel happy?" They also took photos of adults who support their project.

Behind the scenes

MARGARET CLEMONS: President and founder of The Margaret Clemons Foundation (MCF). Margaret founded MCF as a vehicle for the creation of model programs to change the behavior of perpetrators, victims, and communities, by addressing inequities and power imbalances that set the stage for violence.

ALYSIA CHRISTIANI: Studio Manager at Sesame Workshop, and a freelance designer and project manager. As Project Manager for the WITNESS Project Alysa is responsible for implementing the workshop phase and assisting in bringing the project to completion. She is also American born Guyanese. 

ROSHENI TAKECHANDRA: As In-Country Coordinator for WITNESS Project, Rosheni works at the grassroot mobilising and nurturing our 15 children. She fosters the collaboration among various partners and supporters and assists with the implemantation of the project in Guyana. 

NANCY STEVENSON: Director of Character Design at Sesame Workshop where she oversees creative development of character images and usage. As Project Director for the WITNESS Project Nancy is creative director and facilitates our work with the artist JR’s TED Prize global art project, Inside Out.

Behind the scenes II

MARGARET KERTZIOUS: Director of Help & Shelter provided us with so much support that it is difficult to imagine how this project would have worked without her. She provided us with 4 key participant Team members, worked with the Team, provided transportation for the children to attend the meetings, never missed a meeting, brought volunteers to help support the WITNESS Children and worked carefully to help put up those posters. In addition she is a relentless advocate for change and a wonderful, thoughtful partner who provided feedback and ideas!
 

SHIRLEY FERGUSON: Senior Officer with Child Protective Services at the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security Shirley never missed a meeting. She arranged transportation for all of the WITNESS Team from CPS and was reliable and solid and wonderful to all of the children. She proved to be an intelligent addition to our program.
 

TESSA GREENE: Tessa documented the events of WITNESS Project by photographing and video taping each event. Her photographs provided us with valuable information about the progress of the program and the children's participation in the program. She never missed a day or night of work!

ANDREW DOSSANTOS: Worked with Tessa to document the program through photography. His enthusiasm for the program and the photographs he took of the program progress helped to further inform us.
 

ESAN GRIFFITH: Videographer. Esan is our talented videographer without whom we would never have been able to capture as much wonderful material on film. He is intelligent and warm and able to elicit wonderful live footage from our children and onlookers.

& special thanks to:

LAWRENCE FUNG: Canadian High Commission for helping to organize the Scouts to get more posters up on walls! He came through like a gem when we were short handed!

ST. STANISLAUS COLLEGE SCOUT GROUP: What a bunch of great young men these guys were! They came out and got dirty and soaking wet in order to help past posters at the convent where nobody wanted to paste! A very special thanks to these wonderful volunteers!

ERMA BOVELL: Director and founder of the Business School in Georgetown, GY: Ms. Bovell arranged for us to do a presentation of WITNESS for her school which led to a number of students volunteering to help us paste posters including posters at the Business School.

OSCAR RAWLINS: A Senior driver at the Ministry of Education and assigned to help us throughout our stay in Georgetown. We never would have managed without this wonderful addition to our team. He worked morning noon and night on WITNESS Project and never once complained. He was kind and gentle with the children and joined us as a member of the WITNESS family. Completely unforgettable!

SHERWIN: A Senior bus driver at the Ministry of Education and assigned to help us transport the children to and from the various pasting sites. Sherwin and his darling daughter joined our WITNESS Team family and even helped to get some posters up on the wall! What a gem for helping to safeguard the children.

WITNESS Project Guyana & 
The Margaret Clemons Foundation

As part of our ongoing effort to bring change to communities mired in gender based and child-directed violence we have initiated a large community arts program called WITNESS Project. The WITNESS Project objective is to draw attention to and spark a conversation about the effects of violence on society’s most vulnerable and impressionable witnesses—children. Through this project children are sending a bold message to adults that violence against women and children must end.