Our first “Know Your Rights” workshop with juveniles and family members at the CERSAI juvenile detention center in Ciudad Juárez… Saturday, March 18th we were very excited to begin our “Know Your Rights” workshop, in collaboration with the State Human Rights Commission of Chihuahua and the Chihuahua Public Defender’s Office. After many weeks of planning, […]
Complicated Family Reunification
By Olivia Meneses Coordinator of the Mobilize Volunteers Project This is the second time we have completed Family Reunification in Chihuahua. This time I coordinated it remotely from Mexico City, but I would still like to share some of the stories of families and the teenagers. This time there were four mothers that we helped by […]
This weekend, a mother saw her son for the first time in three years
This past weekend, we started our monthly “Family Reunification” project for children in prison in Chihuahua state. Olivia Meneses, our project director, worked with the prison´s list of four teenagers who have not had visitors for months. They all live at least three hours outside the city and come from extreme poverty. We arranged bus […]
The Genesis of “Every Child Has a Story” Photography Documentary Part 4
Part 4: Two boys, one seeing his mother for the first time in 11 months, one seeing his mother for the last time Olivia and Amanda returned from Chihuahua state on Monday after three very busy days with our Family Reunification Project – helping families visit their children in prison. Each one has a story. Olivia […]
The Genesis of “Every Child Has a Story” Photography Documentary Part 3
Part 3: Normalizing the Trauma and Dehumanizing Kids Our Family Reunification Project and the “Every Child Has a Story” documentary heads out this weekend to Chihuahua state. The goal is to help families who cannot afford to visit their children in prison get transportation to the facilities. We are documenting the stories and taking photographs […]
The Genesis of “Every Child Has a Story” Photography Documentary Part 2
Part 2: Olivia calls the family (Read Part 1) Last week, Olivia, our project coordinator, received the list of teenagers in the detention centers in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua who do not receive visitors because their families are too poor. Sixteen children’s names, some with home addresses, some with phone numbers for their parents, some […]
The Genesis of “Every Child Has a Story” Photography Documentary Part 1
Part 1: Leaps of Faith Two years ago this month we completed our “Dia de Visita” photography documentary project. My wife Amanda took the photographs and I interviewed children and their families on visiting day at the detention center. It was quite a challenge to get permission and finally complete interviews with children and parents […]
