Focus on Self-Image : Homeless: A photography class is helping children living in a North Hollywood shelter to get through hard times with a better perception of themselves.

To one group of homeless children, these pictures may be worth just one word.

Self-esteem.

Through an unusual photography class, kids are given cameras and allowed to photograph life in their North Hollywood shelter for the homeless.

The program is designed to boost their sense of importance by giving them a chance to express themselves artistically and understand that they are not alone in their struggle.

“This is a very unique project,” said Roella Hsieh Louie, grants director with the city of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, which funded the project. “It’s wonderful to see children empowered in their own environment, and this kind of project places a value on their ideas and their perceptions.”

Venida Korda, a professional photographer who operates the nonprofit project, said the kids are “documenting what goes on in their lives. Hopefully, in this program, they will see how important they are.”

Funded by a $2,100 grant, Korda brings cameras once a week to the Trudy and Norman Louis Homeless Shelter on Lankershim Boulevard, which provides 80 apartments for those in need of emergency housing. Families may remain for 90 days.

The children are encouraged to take pictures of anything that interests them. Although the photos range from buddy shots to baby sisters, each one reveals something unique about the child who snaps it, Korda said.

“I think it’s interesting,” said Elizabeth, 12. “I like to take pictures of the workers in here. They like to help us. They’re helping us so we won’t be homeless.”

In each session, Korda and the children discuss the previous week’s pictures, which the professional photographer develops. She asks them to talk about how the pictures make them feel, and asks if there is a story to tell or a lesson to be learned.

“If you can take a picture that makes somebody smile, then you’ve done a neat thing,” Korda told the children at a recent meeting.

Korda believes that the program, which she started about eight weeks ago, has helped the young participants acclimate to life in the shelter. The children are often restricted to games on a small plot of grass because of the tough neighborhood outside.

“It keeps the kids enthusiastic about something,” said Ruth Trinidad, a community health worker at the health clinic run at the shelter.

Collectively, the photographs should also provide a measure of where the children have been.

“It’s like a family album,” said shelter resident Patricia Oliveras, 21, whose two daughters, ages 4 and 6, participate in the program, called Los Angeles Photo Outreach. “As they grow older, they’ll go back and see the pictures. It’s good for them to recognize what we’ve been through.”

An exhibition at the shelter is scheduled for Sept. 26, followed by a show at the Los Angeles Children’s Museum in October.

The program, in a small way, has also helped the kids focus on the prospects for a brighter future--an education, a job, and home they can call their own, Korda said.

“Maybe, when I grow up,” said Elizabeth, pointing to a newspaper photographer, “I can be something like him.”