To say the CORD office was bustling this morning would have been an understatement to say the least. Since it was Poya and the kids didn’t have school, the “I Love Jaffna” project team brought fourteen of the Kokkuvil and Kondavil kids to the CORD office to be trained on how to use digital cameras and take good photos. After lunch, we all piled into a van and drove around Jaffna to take the pictures.
Kajenthan composes an image of a Sivan Temple in his viewfinder.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the “I Love Jaffna” project, it’s an initiative intended to help raise self-esteem and promote civic pride in the CORD sponsored kids. A group of about thirty kids from Kokkuvil, Kondavil, and Chavakachcheri were asked to take a photo of something, someone, or somewhere in Jaffna that answers the question: I love Jaffna because…? These photos will then be developed, framed, and displayed during last few weeks of the Nallur Temple festival in early August.
Although our newly trained amateur photographers probably just looked like a bunch of kids taking photos of popular landmarks in Jaffna to most onlookers, it was undoubtedly a much more meaningful & rewarding experience for the kids—and for us. Even though I had been to most of the sites we visited, like the Jaffna Fort & Jaffna Library before, there was something about the sheer joy on the kids’ faces every time they snapped a crisp and well-composed picture that made the visits we made today all the more special. Check out the CORD Facebook page to see pictures of the kids taking photos and visit the Chinmaya Mission on Temple Road (in front of the Jaffna Heritage Hotel) from August 4th – August 17th to see what the kids produced.
– Jega Vigneshwaran
