It’s Christmas in Guatemala and the scent of pine and woodsmoke is in the air. It’s a country that holds on strongly to its traditions. Christmas eve is the family celebration with midnight mass at 10 pm and then at midnight, tamales, and full blast staccato explosions, the air permeated with the smell of cordite as zillions of firecrackers, some strung out in carpets a block long, go ballistic for almost 20 minutes, sounding as if we are in a war zone. I suppose for some it is cathartic. For poor Mick, the dog, and his colleagues it is a time of trembling fear and loathing.

For the Winter Holiday Newsletter, traditionally we take the chance to reflect back on Fotokids Past…

Let’s call these journal excerpts, Far Away From Home. I have taken the kids to Europe, South America and the U.S., mainly to attend our exhibitions, and here are some of their reactions.

London- It was November and cold. The day we were to leave it actually snowed. The train we were planning to take to Gatwick was cancelled and at the last minute we had to hire a private car. Traffic on the highway was slow and everyone was taking photo after photo of snow, a phenomena they had only dreamed about. Maritza, age 10, stuck her tongue out the window and surprised, announced that the snow didn’t taste like much, in fact it tasted a lot like ice.

London – Gladiz, 12 years old, lives on the rim of the dump with 9 people or so in her one room house. We are meeting with children that live in housing estates in East London’s slums to view our exhibit at the Photographers Gallery. They are children with disabilities and one asks Gladiz, after seeing photos of the houses in the dump, “wouldn’t you rather live here?” She pauses a moment, “well, would it have a swimming pool? Maybe for a year or so but no longer.”

Alabama/Georgia- Our very first international exhibit at the University of Alabama- After the exhibit opening we visit my friend Marcie in Georgia- Rosario’s mother calls collect from Guatemala and for a minute I’m worried something is wrong, maybe an emergency. Rosario, age 9, shouts the answers to her mother’s questions into the phone. I can imagine her mother asking her if everything is o.k. and Rosario shouts, ”Si!” exactly as if I had a gun to her ribs. Every question is answered si or no and I’m thinking I better get downstairs to talk to the mother or she may be thinking I am ready to start selling those organs. Just as I reach the bottom step Rosario smiles at me and hangs up!
The next morning Mirian tells me she thinks Rosario isn’t feeling well as she was crying upstairs. Rosario arrives seconds later and I ask her how she feels. “I have a headache,” she says. But I’m pretty sure its homesickness. I offer her a children’s tylenol anyhow. About 5 minutes later she’s laughing, and I remark to our host Marcy that tylenol seems to be effective for homesickness too.
Mirian answers she could stay here the rest of her life. (Mirian does travel again, and to Holland).

London again – here for our 10-year retrospective exhibition of the childrens’ work, sponsored by the Reuters Foundation. This one at a designers gallery, Giraffe, with me are Jonny and Oswaldo who are also here to do internships. It was a trip of firsts! They were hosted by generous Fotokids supporters in a beautiful house near Regents Park. The exhibition was a great success. Initially the idea of leaving London seemed to be their greatest sorrow, however after three weeks, both boys were feeling a bit homesick for their families and for Guatemala. Oswaldo wrote in his diary, “London is magic but Guatemala is complete. Thank you, many thanks to all of you that intervened in my destiny. I feel such affection towards you, and to those that gave me a hand and even more to those that offered me a sincere smile, tremendous trust and most importantly their unconditional friendship.”

(Today, Jonny is Central American Supervisor for an international fumigation company called Rent2Kill and Oswaldo is a fourth-grade teacher and volunteer fireman. Gladiz became a medical secretary, Maritza works in tourism, Rosario moved out of the dump and has her degree in theology, Mirian after many hardships manages the library for an international charity).

A round-up of accomplishments in 2024:

This has been one of the busiest years ever, I’m not sure what happened, but all agree 2024 kept us hopping! We organized three exhibits, a daunting task, selecting the photos from 33 years of work, making sure they were digitally in good shape, printing, cutting matts, framing, writing captions and in some cases, installing the show.

Our first exhibit was at the prestigious Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) where we were invited to show 50 Fotokids’ photographs as part of the Latin American Photographers Exhibition. The BDC did a beautiful job printing and framing and the exhibit was well attended.

In Antigua, Guatemala we had a smaller exhibit at the elegant Panza Verde Gallery for our local supporters.

The third exhibit opens at the end of January in Chennai, India with the Children’s Photography Biennale 2024-2025. Fotokids will be showing alongside kids photo projects from South Africa, Cambodia, Turkey, Singapore, Gaza, London, Thessaloniki Greece, Brussels and New York City. As soon as it goes on online we will send out a link for you- I’m really looking forward to seeing the photography from children al over the world.

Photos from these three Fotokids 2024 exhibits, by the way, are available to purchase on our Smugmug site, and can be sent directly to you! Profits go both to the individual photographer and the scholarship fund. See the Galleries here.

Another step taken is that Fotokids has licensed our program to Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, expanding our presence once again in the U.S. while providing photography and identity workshops for low-income children in Florida. An exhibition of their work is ready to go up early in 2025.

We are in the planning stages for another 8-week workshop with migrant children sponsored by the Kravis Center in neighboring public schools. We hope that the threatened deportations will not interfere with the classes we have scheduled with 4th-6th graders. More on the expected effects of deportations for Guatemala will be covered in the Spring newsletter.

In 2024, we updated our curriculum to train the children in new technologies including using AI as a teaching tool and the use of video apps. We were able to buy some new equipment to update our technology and although we need donations for more cameras and laptops, we are plowing ahead.

In November, we finally restarted our mentored design and photo workshops for our students with professional photographers, Eric Lokema from Holland, and from the U.S., Stu Estler, and Mike Kamber. The fifth-year students, 15 year olds, were given advanced instruction on Lightroom, high dynamic range technique, natural light portraiture and portfolio preparation. It’s imperative to keep kids competitive technologically.

This is interesting; the new students, 4th & 5th graders are only given the cameras to take home after they have cared for an egg that they bring to each class demonstrating that it is not broken.The eggs are signed by the teachers, so there is no way to swap them out. Kids have decorated them and even named them!

Next year we are planning another week-long workshop to be held with our students at beautiful Lake Atitlán, the last week in June. This time we will be doing work for a local client. We need professional mentors in graphic design, photo, and copywriting. Are you interested? Spanish not a must, we have translators. For further details  info@fotokids.org

Personally, I’m trying to step further back from Fotokids, letting the staff take on some of the things I have been handling. My idea is that by finding where our needs are, we can make the organization even stronger. For me, in the coming year I will be working only on exhibitions and the newsletter.

That’s the plan anyhow. Rocio is already handling donations, communications, and videos. Evelyn will be traveling more next year to promote the program and may come to an event near you! I’m very happy with the efficiency, professionalism and creativity the staff has shown again this year. I’m sure you have noticed that we have more video and updates available online.

As many of you know, my brother Mike died in February. (This was, and is, a big blow for me). Going through his papers, I found this note from Juan Carlos who started with Fotokids when he was 9. My brother had supported him from the beginning in school and in Fotokids, visiting him on travels to Guatemala and on one memorable trip to our exhibit in NYC, took him and Linda to see the Radio City Music Hall’s Rockettes’ Christmas show.

I remember that show; a 3-D hologram of Santa in his sled whirled overhead through the audience and then the Rockette’s came on with their spirited, amazing dancing and I whispered to Juan Carlos, “Are you surprised?” and he whispered back, “Seño, this whole trip has been a surprise!”

Then suddenly one day Juan Carlos just stopped coming to classes.

Note from Juan Carlos found in my brothers effects.

Michael before anything else I would like to ask her forgiveness for the fact that I left the project with no explanation.

The project is a very important thing in my life, but my family had economic problems and we need more money. My mother and I worked for a period until we were a little better off. We had to pay off debts with some of the money we earned.

Being in the project for so much time got me thinking how much the project really means to me and all the gratitude I have, because you’re a marvelous people that help unconditionally and infinitely. I want to thank you for so much support that you’ve given me that even my father couldn’t give me if he were still alive.

I hope you can give me a second chance and I hope for your understanding may God bless you and before everything else sincere thanks. Juan Carlos

And it’s true, Juan Carlos left us but with the skills and opportunities he had received from Fotokids, he had acquired the confidence and drive to enroll in the university on his own and now works in a bank. It’s a long way from a tin shack with his single mom, trying to get food on the table. That’s the beauty of a long term project. It’s a commitment that many of you have taken up with Fotokids and can attest to personally, seeing kids blossom and grow.

What is success? Is it being an educated, critical thinking person? Is it giving back and thinking of sharing the opportunities you have had with others? Being a leader in a community? Being able to find a job with the additional skills learned at Fotokids

Well, yeah, it’s all those things, at least that’s how I measure success. I’m pleased to say I think with your help we have been rather successful in having lots of children meeting those criteria. No make that thousands! So good on you, you have made a life-change in a child’s world, you have helped to capture dreams.

Want to unload some stock? We can help with that!
Donating appreciated stock is a powerful way to support Fotokids while maximizing your tax benefits.
By giving stock directly, you can avoid capital gains tax and deduct the full market value of your gift (Consult your tax professional).

To donate stock, email us at info@fotokids.org
for step-by-step instructions.

NOT TOO LATE TO SEND A CHECK!!
Date it before January 1st for 2024 IRS Taxes!
And send to:

Fotokids/Walt Trask,
2240 S Palm Canyon Drive, #16,
Palm Springs CA 92264

Want to participate in changing a life? We need scholarships. Costs have risen here, as everywhere in the world, but for $1200 you can keep a kid in school a year and/or for another $1200 you can give them a concurrent Fotokids vocational scholarship. Consider a monthly donation-you can do that here.

Kids get jobs with their transferable Fotokids skills in photography, design, video, web design and writing, critical thinking and self-confidence and, not to mention, the immeasurable gift of their desire to “give back”.

What does the Fotokids vocational scholarship pay for: sponsorship for OUR Fotokids programs, as these are not covered by the student’s educational scholarships.

The fee of $1200 for the vocational sponsorship pays for teacher salaries, computers, software, cameras, (lunches are taken care of by a generous supporter), renting school buses, excursions, events, insurance, utilities, security guards, any legal fees, exhibits, building maintenance, etc.

We put as top priority the educational scholarships and each year we pretty much scrape by with Fotokids program support. That’s why we need your help, especially this year.

And now if you have read through this always longish newsletter, here is the most interesting section! The Fotokids Photos!!