Theft Stunts Development of Photo Project

The Christmas Eve thieves who broke into the nondescript two-story building tucked into a neighborhood of storefronts here stole more than computers, cameras and telephones.

“They took 10 years of work,” lamented Nancy McGirr, a former war photographer who, for most of the past decade, has directed a program to give Guatemala’s poorest children a way out of their poverty through photography.

“Out of the Dump,” as the program is called, started in 1991 at the sprawling city dump, the workplace of last resort in this country of 12 million people with no welfare system or unemployment insurance. About 1,000 people, mostly children, live amid the trash. They scavenge through the daily haul for returnable bottles, old clothes, pens that still have ink--anything they can sell or use.

As McGirr photographed the dump and its inhabitants, she made friends with a group of children. Gradually, an idea came to her: Why not let them photograph their daily lives?

She gave cameras to 10 children and waited for the results. They brought back pictures with captions that read, “The Day We Found the Dead Body,” “Boys Sniffing Glue” and “My Sister Getting a Bath,” a photo of a toddler in a plastic washtub.

“What I envisioned was [a project that would last] three to six months,” McGirr said. “I thought it would be nice to have a show.”

The exhibit was such a hit that she got an offer to compile the black-and-white photos into a book, titled “Out of the Dump.” A Japanese foundation took the exhibit and several of the children to Tokyo, where the project received donations of cameras and film.

The kids kept taking pictures, and the photographer, who had covered Central America’s civil wars during the 1980s, found herself in a different kind of struggle in the 1990s: the fight for resources to keep her proteges’ cameras going.

A church was willing to lend a basement for what became an after-school program. When McGirr’s original photographers were skilled enough to teach others, the congregation recommended as students children who lived along the nearby railroad tracks.

By that time, McGirr was interviewing parents to decide whether their children could join the program. She wanted a commitment that they would keep their sons and daughters in school in return for a $280-a-year scholarship--enough to buy uniforms, notebooks and pencils for children who otherwise would join the two-thirds of Guatemalan kids who do not finish first grade.

That was six years ago, when Berlin Juarez and Linda Morales joined. “I was so happy when I learned to take my first photo,” said Linda, now a 15-year-old with long, dark hair and round glasses. “I started to go every day.”

She accompanied her photos to Houston for an exhibit that first year. The program provided stability for her when her parents divorced two years ago, she said. By then, she was teaching photography one day a week in Santiago Atitlan, an indigenous community.

Linda has progressed from photography to computer imaging as the program received donations of computers. She plans to study marketing and advertising when she goes to college.

Juarez, now 19, with his dark hair tied into a ponytail and a ready smile, is studying graphic design at a technical school. He does his teaching--required of all program veterans--at Ixcan, a community of former refugees who fled to Mexico during the civil war and returned four years ago.

“When you teach, it’s like learning a second time,” he said. “You notice your own mistakes.”

In March, McGirr expanded the program into neighboring Honduras, using photography to teach ecology consciousness to 26 children living on the edge of the Pico Bonito National Park.

In all, 84 children participate in the photography programs. “Out of the Dump” also has a Web site: https://www.pictureprojects.com/dump/.

A few weeks ago, McGirr was making plans to advise potential photography projects for children in Brazil and Colombia. Instead, she must start over in Guatemala.

Police have no suspects in the theft, and it’s rare to find culprits here or recover stolen items. So she’s contacting advertising agencies and foundations that have previously supported the program.

Darling recently was on assignment in Guatemala.