Photo Kids Telwatta

A hundred years!

2009-01-19T14:06:00.002+01:00

It was an important day for the participants of our little photo contest on Friday. We had chosen the winner out of the almost 5000 photographs the boys have taken. After going through them for hours Nipuna was the definite winner. He took more than 1700 pictures and came with new ones almost everyday. But he didn`t win because of the quantity of photos but because of the quality of many of them. He experimented a lot (see selfportraits).

Before the award ceremony we all ate lunch together. Rice & Curry followed by chocolate ice cream and accompanied by Coca Cola and Fanta. A bit like christmas for some of the boys.
Then everyone got a certificate that he participated the photo project. Furthermore all got a CD with their photos on it. The first three of them also won a photo album and the winner was given a brand new camera. He didn`t let go of it ever since.
When he received the parcel I couldn`t see an expression of happiness on his face and started to get a bit disappointed. But when he left the house, one foot still in the door wrapping paper was flying around and he unpacked the camera in the middle of the road. Surrounded by 10 other boys. That night he came back to tempel because he wanted to ask Ariyadhamma about things he could figure out himself concerning the camera.

When i said good bye to them I asked if all of them wanted to continue with the program. The answer came like a gun shot out of the winners mouth: „ a hundred years!“
The other boys seem to be equaly motivated to work on their creativity.
I`m looking forward to seeing more of their work and how they develop their own style.

Last week I looked at all the photos again and I`m quite impressed by them. I didn`t expect so many different perspectives and impressions of kids who never used cameras before.
It seems like they all have it already inside their heads and now they are able to show it. All I did was giving them a few little technical advices. I thought I would have to give them much more advice and help.
So i really hope that some of them keep taking photos with the same intensity than they have shown in the last few weeks.

The blog will get updated regularly.

I want to thank all of you who made that possible again.
If we want to keep the project going I will have to ask you again for help sooner or later.
Right now we are still looking for cameras so each of the boys can have his own at any time.

All the best and thank you all again!

Georg

2009-01-19T13:56:00.006+01:00

A few of my favorite pictures of the last few weeks

A look around

2009-01-12T11:19:00.021+01:00

Our photographers become allrounders. See what they did capturing their world:

Nipuna´s family

2009-01-06T17:11:00.003+01:00

Selfportrait

2009-01-06T17:08:00.005+01:00

Nipuna started to take self portraits. About 360 of them. Have a look:

Private lesson

2009-01-03T17:16:00.005+01:00

Today some of the boys got a private lesson from me. They had lots of fun with it and laughted their heads off at the end of each lesson. It is nice to see that they have such a good time with photography. I`ve uploaded you some of my impressions as well as some of the photos of the young artists. Have fun with it!

The boys at work

2009-01-03T16:48:00.010+01:00

Until now the photographers only took one picture per object. I asked them to make a whole series of one portrait. And I wanted them to have fun wirh it. I think some did a pretty good job on that.

Happy new year from Georg

2008-12-31T17:22:00.005+01:00

Devamitta said about everything I wanted to say.
I`m very happy to be here and I have lots of fun with the „Photo Kids“!
Ariyadhamma is a very interested and helpful assistant and Devamitta a generous and very helpful host. He is like a father for this project.
The days go by very quickly and we only have two weeks left. But with the intensity and passion the boys work and enjoy photography I`m sure we will get a good base for some of them.

Many of you supported us already and made all this possible. We were able to get seven cameras and more than 1000 Euros. That is incredibly motivating and impressing for me. Especially because I know under what circumstances some of you enabled that support.
About ten of the boys (we are still hoping that some girls will join) come regularly to the meetings and one can see them to any given time with their cameras ready to “shoot”. Unfortunatelly not all of them got a camera yet. So I hope soon all of them will have the possibility to have one handy at any time. I would appreciate if all of you could continue to look out for cameras and financial support so we can make that possible for them.
The project is supposed to change from a four-week-crash-course to a long term project. I hope we will be able to make that happen with your support.

The following picture I put together out of pictures the young photographers took especially for you. In particular for the ones who supported us with cameras and financially.

Lots of thanks also from me!!

I wish you all a wonderful year 2009!

Georg

Dear friends,

Happy new year from Devamitta

2008-12-31T17:19:00.001+01:00

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Telwatta Photo Kids.

Hereby I wish to thank you all for your support of the project which is run here by Mr. Georg Höfer for the benefit of our kids.
The boys here are so enthusiastic and happy with the “Photo Kids” program and they are learning so much during this period.
Personally I not only enjoy seeing them having so much fun together, which is not happening so much in their daily live, I also see that the program is having the result I hoped for: they start to look different at each other and their surroundings, they see pictures and beauty everywhere! This will make a big difference for their future; they are looking different at their lifes.

The aim we had: to stimulate their artistic characteristics, to stimulate their creativity and to make them work together will be surely reached!
I must say that a great part of this is thanks to the inspiring teaching of Georg and his handling of the group! He is doing this in such a way that I think that if he worked with my pupil the Rev. Ariyadhamma before that he might have become a photographer instead of a monk! He surely “infected” him with the “photography virus”, especially the passion of Georg for night photography has been transferred to the
Rev. Ariyadhamma! And because of Georg’s passion for photography and his way of working and teaching the boys here my admiration for him has grown every day!

Dear friends (if I may call you all so?), I want to thank you all for your support for this project. It makes the end of this year so valuable for the boys and me personally! It gives me good prospects and hope for the coming year. Normally we are so busy to try and help those who suffer that it is a wonderful way to end this, and start the next year with such a creative, educational and “fun” program!
Thank you very much! Thank you Georg!

I hope you will continue to support this program and I end this letter with the wish that;
You all May be Healthy, Happy and Safe in this New Year!

Yours sincerely:

Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera
Metta Ashrama
Telwatta – Sri Lanka.

Listen and learn..!

2008-12-30T17:17:00.012+01:00

The following photos were taken by one photographer, Nipuna. He took the challenge I gave them two days ago very seriously: I wanted them to take at least ten photographs of each person from different points of view and distances.
There are festivities in the local temple at the moment and some of the boys are active there so only one of them did what I expected.
Before the boys only took one or at the most two pictures per person. Here you can see that the photographer told his model what to do and how to act. That way a snap shot becomes a photograph in which the photographer becomes the director.

Two days later

2008-12-29T17:43:00.008+01:00

I told the kids what to be aware of for the next time they take photos. But I wasn`t sure they really understood. But I knew they did after I saw that:

I think this is pretty impressive. We have been working together for less than one week. And they are picking the important things up very quickly! I hope you are as impressed as I am. Always keep in mind that photography is new to most of them!

It would be nice for all of us if you could comment our work. I see it more as a project of all of us, not just the people here in Sri Lanka. Many of you have been very supportive. Please do that again by telling us what you think. And not only good things. We also appreciate if you tell us what you would improve!

After the first lesson

2008-12-29T16:38:00.007+01:00

Every other day the kids come to our house to present us the pictures they have taken the day before. We all sit in the living room and go through a selection of the photos on the projector. I explain to them what is good in the pictures and tell them what they have to be careful about the next time they „shoot“. Ariyadhamma functions as my translator. I`m very surprised how concentrated the kids are listening and what kind of discussions they have. When I ask them what the think is good about a certain photograph or what could be done better some of them always know the rigth answer after thinking about it very hard for a few seconds. Then they are very, very proud and happy.
We also laugh a lot together. They about my not existing singhala language skills and their photos and me about the happy kids and their jokes.
But they take the project very seriously as well. Sometimes when I go through Telwatta at 7 o`clock in the morning I can see some of them already taking pictures somewhere.

I give the boys a new exercise for the next few days every time we meet. Rigth now I want them to learn about portrait photography. Here you can see what happens if you tell some boys with cameras: „find some nice people and take nice pictures of them!“.
First I wanted to see what the photos look like if they take them without knowledge about composition and other artistic ideas.

The first photos

2008-12-28T16:06:00.008+01:00

Finally I uploaded the first results of the work of our "Photo Kids". These photos were taken when the boys first got their cameras. They "shot" everything they could find. But for me it was pretty surprising to see what they came up with and some of the results are quite impressive. Keeping in mind that most of them never used a camera before. I think it is a very good base. Have a look for yourself.

The kids from Galle

2008-12-24T14:36:00.005+01:00

Below you can see our photographers from Galle. It is about 25 km south from Telwatta.

The kids from Tellwatta

2008-12-24T07:28:00.006+01:00

Today the kids came back to visit us to show us what they have been taking pictures of the day before. You will soon find a selection of those pictures here on the blog. But we don`t have pictures of all the kids yet because only half of them can take photos at a time.
In the meantime we want to introduce the kids from Tellwatta to you. The ones from Galle will follow soon.

The first day

2008-12-22T17:55:00.001+01:00

Today we started our „Photo Kids project“.

Early afternoon three boys from Galle, about 20 km south of here, with a teacher and seven boys from Tellwatta came to see us. We rent a house where we can meet. There are also other projects going on in that house.

We explained to the kids again what they had to expect and what we expect and then gave them the cameras. I started to show them how to use them but some of them didn’t even wait for that and started to take pictures of their friends, flowers, us, the dog and everything they could find. The older ones took care of the younger ones. That was very nice to watch even though I didn’t have much time to do so because they came back and showed me proudly what they have done. And some of the pictures really impressed me. And they only had the cameras for 15 minutes.

The lemonade and the biscuits we gave them didn’t last long and the kids took off to start their carreers as professional photographers.

Now always two of them share a camera and will take pictures of their parents, their siblings and their friends. Tomorrow they will come back and we will have a look at the first results.

THE IDEA

2008-11-10T20:25:00.001+01:00

Dear Friends

I’ve been asked to tell something about this project, about ourselves and what we do.

I will start with the last; my name is Ven. Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera. I am a Dutch Buddhist monk who came 27 years ago to Sri Lanka and was ordained here as a novice in the village of Kahawa where my teacher the late Ven. Kahawa Sri Devarakkhita Maha Thera gave me the village temple called Kurupukhanda Viharaya to reside. We are of the famous ancient lineage of the Totagamuva Raja Maha Viharaya in Telwatta.

A few months later I got my High Ordination at the Malwatta Raja Maha Viharaya in Kandy. I stayed in Kahawa for a few years, initiated with some friends different social and welfare services, and then moved with my pupils to the jungle at Vandina Ella Mountain near the Jala National Park in the central dry zone of the country. There we spend our time with the practise of meditation and lived a simple live of service to the poor people of that region. Due to a number of circumstances I left the country to work as monk among others in Thailand, Europe, Canada and Taiwan. After the Tsunami I returned to Sri Lanka to bring relief goods and work to rebuild and build medical and educational facilities in Tsunami related projects.

There where so many needs and wants that after people asked me to stay here I decided to do so and work for the benefit of the Buddhist Brotherhood (Sangha) as well as the suffering laity in this region and elsewhere in the country. Since that time I have ordained a few young novices who are all interested in the way we practise Buddhism, meditation and render services to the laity.

The aim is that they can take over the work when I’m not able to do that anymore. The oldest one of those novices is the Rev. B. Ariyadhamma though he is now only 16 years old he is one of the hardest working people we have, and he is not only working under my guidance; he also works independently on different projects in some cases, helps others in organising their projects, translates for visitors and foreign students who come to Sri Lanka and helps them in different ways to make their research successful. The other two are 14 years old and are being trained to be able in some time to start doing the same. We hope that as soon as we have the accommodation we can ordain two more youngsters to join us. We need this young people because they have to learn from young age on to live in the service of the people, and it is astonishing to see how many youngsters would like to join us, because we live a very simple life of practise and very hard work. They search ordination with us because they see our way of living and working and it appeals to them more then living in the big Temples with better accommodation and an easier life in the towns and villages. Even though we got several applications from young boys who want to join us, we select very carefully who to ordain. At the moment there are a few boys waiting to be ordained as soon as we can accommodate them.

One of Devamitta`s novices 2006

There are so many needs here because we work with the poor and the desolate. We found that the two keywords to resolve the problems we face as a country and a society are: Care and Education. Even though we try to help everyone who needs it; we try to concentrate on the children and the youth, they are the future of this beautiful country. We started a broad variety of programs ranging from; simple medical care programs supporting individuals who need medical help in different ways, Hospitals who need help; with the help of some volunteers we renovated Mother and Child medical centres in the rural regions. We were able to run a broad Inter-Religious Dialogue project, language lessons and different social rehabilitation projects. Fortunately we got some help from a small group of people of the Randolph Fellowship in Holland, and some other individuals who have been helping us during the last few years. The problem is that the needs are so many and so big, our means so very restricted, and the support these few people can give us is limited.

There is a great number of artistically talented children & youngsters in our society. There is a lot of creativity but those who are interested to pursue a future in arts are unfortunately pushed in to a career as copyists. Originality is not sufficiently stimulated so creativity vanishes after some time. In art education they for example put up a rule that there may not be any white or open space in a painting or drawing. Everything has to be filled up. Depth and perspective as well as proportion and anatomy are nearly never teached. Because of the copyist tradition the paintings tell no “story”, transfer no emotion or feeling. Many artists who are still a bit creative and have original ideas, use photographs as example and use them to make their paintings. Also artistic and industrial photography are not really teached. The journalistic value of photos of the daily life and surroundings are here highly underestimated. I had the dream to start a project to work with those talented children and youngsters through photography, in the hope to give them the opportunity to develop their talents and maybe give them an idea to seek work in the art sector later in their life.

As often happens we did not have the opportunity to do so. Until a few months ago I received an e-mail from our dear friend Georg Hoefer who we know as a hard working volunteer during the time after the Tsunami and a person who is genuinly interested to help the people here! He asked if there was a project related to his profession as a photographer. Well, there was not really but I told him of our hope to start a project like the one we propose to you now, and he was very enthusiastic to work with us and to help to organize it. So, as often happens when the time is right the opportunity to do what we hope to do will come, and our trust is rewarded. We hope therefore that there will be people who read this and are able and willing to help us in running this and maybe some other projects.

This picture was taken in Tellwatte in 2006

So in this project we hope to stimulate the creativity of the young people of Tellwatte. We would like the children who participate to take pictures that tell a story with an emotion. Most of these children are still affected by their experiences as tsunami victims and some are quite traumatized. We hope that this way they will be able to express their emotions which will help them to heal their inner wounds. We will try to help them to develop an” eye” for the beauty of their surroundings. We hope they will learn about composition and photographic techniques through this program.

To show their work we would like to make a 3 monthly newsletter (or a kind of newspaper) by and for kids, their parents and other adults.

We hope to show their work through an exhibition, on the internet and by any other means possible.

At the moment we are in contact with different organisations that are quite enthusiastic and willing to work with us and look what more can come out of this project.

The Goethe Institute is thinking about having an exhibition of the best photos, we have made contact with different local children newspapers to pay attention to the project, with local newspapers who have a children supplement.

We made contact with a special student magazine which is distributed for free among them through the universities, and with the Ministry of Education.

Contacts are being made with children programs on a few television stations, the Rotary Club in Galle and different other organizations.

So I’ll end this text with our greetings and regards and the wish that all of you who read it will through the Blessings of The Triple Gem (The Buddha, His Teachings and the Brotherhood of monks and nuns) be Happy, Healthy and Safe!

Yours sincerely:

Ven. H. S. Devamitta Maha Thera

Metta Ashrama

Sinha Govi Mawatha

Dalluwattumula

Telwatta.80242

Sri Lanka.

OTHER PROJECTS

2008-11-01T14:48:00.000+01:00

The Blue Lotus Home

There is a great need for a rehabilitation home for children & youngsters where we will also be able to work with the village youth from our region.

Through our work with the NCPA (National Child Protection Authority) during the past few years it became clear to us that there is a great need for such a centre. What is the idea?

There are a number of children who need to rehabilitate after physical and psychical abuse, sometimes in combination with trauma work.

There are a number of children who need care for a certain period after medical treatment or even before they can have medical treatment (because of malnutrition).

Many youngsters who are living in orphanages are only allowed to stay there untill they are 18 years old, some only untill they are 16. They are kept there without being prepared for a future outside of the home. They have practically no social skills, they have not finished their education (so they will not be able to work as professionals), and often they end up in criminality and/or prostitution. In the best cases they have to become day labourers and work as unskilled workers for the lowest payment.

The suicide percentage of children and youth in Sri Lanka is among the highest in the world. The suicide percentage among these particular youngsters is the highest in the country. We know that we can’t safe them all, but we would like to try and give some of them a future and take care that they become well educated and independent people who are valuable for the society. That way they will be an example to show that with proper care and education those children will not be lost and we hope that others will follow and start projects on the same basis. Therefore we propose this project to you.

This picture was taken in Tellwatte in 2006

We hope to start the Blue Lotus Home and run there the following project as soon as we have enough fundings:

There should be a place for about 8-10 permanent inmates in the age group up to maximum 23 years old (so they have finished their education), furthermore there should be the possibility to lodge 5-6 youngsters who need to stay for a limited time (trauma work and medical after care but also sometimes a period to get in to condition before a operation etc.). There should be the accommodation to run different programs for the children in our surrounding like for example the Photo Kids Program and others; we can get English, Chinese and Japanese language lessons, Buddhist monks and nuns are willing to do this on a long term basis for free. We only have to supply them with food and lodging. They are also able to go around to other villages to teach for free.

We hope to teach there social skills to the children, have a trauma healing program and work on a SUICIDE, DRUGS and HIV/AIDS prevention program.

I can and will give you here only one story about a case in short because we want to protect those children in need as much as possible, I hope you understand that!

One of the children who needs practically all of the above is a boy from here on called X. X is ten years old, when he was about 4 he was already begging on the streets for some time and his mother (if you can call her that) decided that if she would cut off one of his ears and keep the wound from healing he would be able to bring in more money.

About 2 years ago the NCPA took him from the streets and after a court case handed him over to a children home. So far so good you would say. The person in charge of the home is a kind young monk who tries to take good care of the children. The problem is that the boy X is traumatized and needs trauma work to heal, there is no possibility in that home as in many others because its state run and does not have funds or accommodation to do so. We are able to give the boy a new ear because a plastic surgeon who worked here for a period of 2 years was willing to do the operation for free, that was great! The problem is that the boy is quite badly mal nourished and has to gain weight before he can be operated. We asked the head of the home if we could arrange extra food to be given to X so he could undergo the operation? This was refused. Not out of cruelty, he had a valid reason: about 2/3 of the boys in the home where malnourished and he could not give one of them more food then the others. If we would have a place for him and others like him to stay for some time we could go to court and have him released to stay with us until he recovered from the operation. X has now only one big dream: He wants to have a pair of sunglasses which he can wear even with his one ear. Georg promised to find a pair for him.

Case nr.2; called XX

XX was a young man of 17, highly intelligent, studying hard with good results. Teachers and workers in the home where he stayed where all positive that if he could finish his education he would have a good if not great future. When his 18^th birthday came closer he asked a number of people to help him get a place where he could stay and to sponsor his study’s. He promised that after he finished his study he would pay them back and that during his study he would try to get some part time job also. He didn’t find people to help him.

The evening before his birthday he jumped in front of a train which was entering Galle Station.

Unfortunately this is one of many stories. If I would have known …. If we would have been able to get him a place …….

If there are people who would be able and willing to help us to collect funds, or even donate something ….

If you want more details about this project please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The second project which needs funding is that for our living quarters to be finished so we can ordain more novices, and have a decent place to live.

If you want details please contact us.

If there is enough fundings there are many more projects we will put up informations about on the blog.