In San Diego, The AjA Project runs Journey, an after school participatory photography program for refugee youth. Journey operates in El Cajon and the City Heights area of San Diego, with young people who have been resettled here from Somalia, Sudan, Colombia, Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Each semester approximately 50 kids participate in the Journey program. They learn how to use cameras, video cameras, computers and other multimedia tools, and are given opportunities to practice their written and oral English through writing assignments and public speaking opportunities. Classes consist of interactive projects and discussions, photo and writing assignments, and field trips that engage refugee youth in critical thinking and self and community exploration. The students learn how to analyze their surroundings through the lens of a camera, create a photography-based story combining their words and images, and develop their computer skills. Through AjA, refugee youth are given the tools not only to express their experiences to a larger audience, but to process, reflect, and begin to understand their experiences of war, resettlement, immigration and assimilation. In addition, AjA is committed to helping create communities where refugees are understood by others. Through exhibitions held around San Diego, we work to provide opportunities for our students to have their stories publicly shared and honored, and to foster dialogue among different sectors of our community(click here to view the students' works).

Watch The AjA Project's Most Recent Public Exhibit : In+GRAIN (2007)

PROGRAM BACKGROUND

Twenty-five percent of San Diego’s population is foreign-born, of which a significant portion is refugee. Forced from their homes because of racial, religious and ethnic persecution, and uprooted by war and violence, refugees are resettled throughout the San Diego area where they begin to slowly rebuild their lives. In response to this need, The AjA Project launched the Journey participatory photography program in San Diego, California, in July of 2002. Journey exists to alleviate the sense of despair, loss, and alienation refugee youth often experience in acculturating to life in America, as well as to help their classmates, communities and the broader public understand and appreciate the difficulties of the refugee experience. Since July 2002, Journey has empowered over 200 recently resettled refugee young people, enabling them to use photography as a tool to tell the stories of their lives, families and communities, and creating a space where those stories are valued and honored. In 2003, Journey students participated in the "Documentary Interchange" initiative. Through this program they had the opportunity to exchange photos and letters with pen pals in AjA’s programs in Thailand and Colombia.

PARTNERS
The AjA Project works in collaboration with a number of other vital programs operating in San Diego. Without their partnership and support the Journey program would not be possible. These include: The International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Students Plus, the Cajon Valley Union School District, Cajon Valley Middle School, Gompers Charter Middle School, President John Adams Manor Apartments, MAAC Project and Survivors of Torture, International.