Photo exhibition Through Hardship to the Stars

• Date: 24 November
• label.tijd 7:00 - 19:00
• Location: Atrium 

Young, fled and left everything behind; their world is turned upside down. In the photo exhibition Through Hardships to the Stars – The dreams and values ​​of refugee young people in poetry and photo portraits, which can be seen in the Atrium The Hague from 13 until 24 November, these refugee young people give an insight into their world through impressive, personal and moving stories.

The portrait photos of these 21 young people, together with everyone’s history, form a special and moving whole. Their lyrics make an impression, hold up a mirror to you, take you into their lives, their dreams and their doubts. This exhibition was made possible by the Reclame Maken Voor Jezelf foundation and GK Print & Sign.

Stichting Reclame Maken Voor Jezelf, in collaboration with VluchtelingenWerk, Municipality of The Hague and Stichting IMCWeekendschool, presents this project. During this project, the workshop leaders (IMCoaches) and participants (the refugee youth) discussed their personal life stories and their own (core) values. The workshops took place in SoZa (the former Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment) where many refugee people are housed. Here they worked on developing their talent and getting to know themselves. The result of this project are posters and texts in which young people share their personal stories with the public. The core value(s) of the project are: creating an encounter, thinking about citizenship, connecting and pride.

Stichting Reclame maken voor jezelf
When Melle Dotinga – founder of the foundation, copywriter, poet and core values ​​expert – developed internal communication for a juvenile justice institution in 2006 – aimed at young people there, the idea arose to encourage them to look at themselves positively. This is how ‘Reclame maken voor jezelf’ was born. A series of lessons that encourages young people to be proud of themselves and boosts their self-image. Writers, poets, spoken word-performers and rappers give the lessons. They know how to encourage young person, so that they feel the positive experience of writing a poem, a rap lyric, a ‘spoken word’. A top photographer portrays every young person and that is also a very special and exciting experience for some. The lessons end with an exhibition in which the photo portraits with texts are shown to the public. This results in great conversations between young people and their parent(s) and other audiences. The RMVJ Foundation teaches in youth care institutions, in special and regular primary and secondary education, in juvenile justice institutions, in various places with young refugees and at IMC Weekend School. In addition, workshops are held with people with mild intellectual disabilities and people with acquired brain damage. The lessons are also popular abroad, such as through the Tika Foundation at a secondary school in Nepal and at Mundo de Talentos in Mexico.

For more information, visit reclamemakenvoorjezelf.nl.

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