Shooting to Success

Monday, February 8, 1999

Shooting to Success

For 28 fifth-graders at Hawaiian Avenue Elementary School, using
cameras to document their lives and community is a fun, safe
project that helps show other people exactly what they see

By Mary Vuong

Daily Bruin Contributor

In a community where gangs, high school dropouts and pregnant
teens have become all too common, over two dozen 10- and
11-year-olds are fighting back, shooting everyone and everything in
sight.

With 27-exposure, disposable cameras, that is.

Conceived by Alina Bueno, a graduate student at the School of
Public Health, "Shoot Back With Cameras – Not Guns" is a project
designed to help students in low-income urban areas identify both
negative and positive aspects of their community.

After receiving grant money, Bueno was able to provide cameras
for a class of fifth-graders at Hawaiian Avenue Elementary School,
located in Wilmington.

"These kids have really started to think about the consequences
of their actions and also those of their community," Bueno said.
"They realize that they’re not alone, that the community together
can be used as a strength."

"They have the power to change or improve things," she
added.

Fran Brown, the class’s teacher, said that for many of her
students, English is their second language, and this project has
been instrumental in building a variety of skills.

"In addition to taking pictures, they’re also writing about
them, so this project incorporates visual and language arts," Brown
said. "Though they don’t seem to be aware that they’re building
language skills – they’re just having a lot of fun."

Brown brought the students to UCLA on Feb. 2, so that they could
see the campus through the viewfinders of their cameras.

Bueno’s mother is a teacher at the elementary school, which made
it easier to carry out her plan. But she also chose the school for
its specific area.

"I wanted to do the program in a lower income community, and
Wilmington fits the bill. There’s also gang activity, and some of
the kids see drug dealers," Bueno said.

Since last September, Bueno has met with the children for an
hour each week to prepare for the project.

"We talk about what’s going on in their community, whether the
kids themselves feel safe. And if kids are having these types of
concerns, their parents must be too," Bueno said.

"The comments and responses they give are very intelligent; they
know what’s going on out there," she added.

During the weekly sessions, the students also devoted time to
analyzing published photos from various newspapers and listened to
lectures given by professional photographers.

And so just last month, the elementary school students became
photojournalists.

With cameras in hand, the kids took pictures of their personal
life, including loving families, adoring pets and an alarming
amount of graffiti.

To the students, a picture showing graffiti in a park means that
gangsters hang out there, which tells them that it is not a safe
place to play, Bueno said.

"It makes me feel bad that gangsters graffiti because then
people have to paint over it. But then the graffiti keeps coming
back, so they keep having to paint over and over it," said Marisela
Lomeli, one of the students involved in the project.

Last week, Bueno selected several of the photos and had the
students discuss their importance.

"I made photocopies of the pictures that I felt had a story
behind them, ones that I thought people who don’t live in
Wilmington would be curious about," Bueno said.

Within the next several months, the students will receive a
second set of cameras, which will be used to document their
community. Then each child will select a favorite picture, and
write an essay that explains its significance and how it makes them
feel.

Bueno said that policy-makers don’t always live in the community
they’re trying to help, so when they make changes, they do it based
on how they see things.

"This is a chance for them to see things the way the kids do.
The students are supposed to report to the rest of L.A. what
Wilmington is all about," she said.

"Photography is a communication tool that crosses all language
barriers," she added.

As for the future, Bueno hopes to expand the program to other
schools in the city, and make it last longer.

"I’d also like to have the students pick one specific problem
that they’ve identified, then go forward with solving it. I want
them to be proactive and more invested in their community," she
said.

For these fifth-graders, this project has given them a chance to
reflect about themselves and their community.

"It makes me mad that people are just messing up the communities
with trash and graffiti," said Francisco Villa, one of the
students.

Fellow classmate Dolores Orozco, whose photos included trash on
the streets and an abandoned building with rats, also agreed that
these things are bad for the community.

But both students said that they had fun, and learned a lot.

"Many of these kids used to think that things like going to
college or having a career are out of their reach. Now they are
seeing things differently. This project has opened doors for them.
It has built their self-esteem," Brown said.

"I want people to see this program and realize the power that
children have, that they do realize what’s going on. Hopefully this
program will help these kids make positive choices in their lives,"
Bueno said.

DAVID HILL

Javier Ramos (right), a fifth-grader from Hawaiian Avenue
Elementary School, is one of the students who took part in "Shoot
back with cameras – not guns." The project allows inner-city
children to document their community.

Comments, feedback, problems?

© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]