Guatemala City

Years active

1991 - Present

Region

Guatemala City & surroundings

Past Participants

1200+

Currently enrolled students

45+

Description

Fotokids was founded in 1991 by ex-Reuters photojournalist Nancy McGirr, who handed cameras to eight children that lived with their families alongside thousands of others in Guatemala City’s municipal garbage dump and had them document their lives.

Fotokids expanded in those first years to include children who lived with their families as squatters alongside the railroad tracks and from the poor barrio of Mesquital.

In the last 30 plus years we have worked in some of the most desperately poor, most violent, gang dominated barrios of the city including zona 18, Santa Fe, Boca Del Monte, Ciudad Quetzal, Villa Nueva, and El Bucaro.

In Tierra Nueva, two of the original Fotokids students from the dump, sisters Marta and Rosario, initiated classes in one of the most dangerous gang areas in Central America and worked with some of the 37 families of assassinated bus drivers.

Fotokids has helped thousands of at-risk children affected by poverty and violence by giving them a chance to dream of a better life, using photography, graphic design, media technology and vocational training experience as a tool for self-expression, creativity, leadership, and future employment.