The Story

One evening, last February while I was walking around the old colonial city of Grenada in Nicaragua I spotted a sign for a photography exhibit. When I went to the show I was very impressed by the quality of the photographs….and then I met the photographers. They were children, many of them looking younger than their years, all of them proud and excited to be part of the show. These children were making a difference in their own lives and the lives of their fellow students. All the profits from the show were going to an organization called Empowerment International (EI). EI is dedicated to helping Nicaraguan children stay in school through financial aid, emotional and practical support and enrichment programs including photography. This was not charity, this was the children sharing their world through their art and helping themselves and others.

That night in February, I met with Kathy Adams, the founder of EI and suggested we do a show in Toronto. Since then, many people in Toronto have been involved in putting the show together, all enthusiastic volunteers. The children in Nicaragua are thrilled to have people in Canada coming out to see their work and the opportunity to expand the EI program to more students.

This show is about more than raising money, it’s an opportunity to see the beauty of another part of the world, to see how others live through their own eyes.

- Christine Hutchings