La Cañada church hosts exhibit focusing on plight of world’s poor communities

Across the globe, children are being kidnapped and sold into slavery, while Syrian refugees whose lives once resembled a typical middle-class existence are fleeing violence in war-ravaged cities.

Yet from La Cañada’s peaceful vantage point nearly 8,000 miles away, the daily tragedies occurring to men, women and children, and what might be done to aid them, may not be a front-of-mind concern.

To remedy the emotional distance that sometimes accompanies a geographical one, La Cañada Presbyterian Church recently hosted a three-day interactive exhibit created by the global Christian humanitarian organization World Vision, Inc.

On Sunday through Tuesday, area residents participated “World Vision Experience: Life in the Margins,” a nationally touring exhibit intended to expose citizens to the plight of people living in substandard living conditions, and the work World Vision is doing to help.

From inside an expandable truck trailer in the church’s parking lot, the exhibit brought to life the stories of three people living in different countries — Bangladesh, Syria and Uganda— through videos, narration and still photography displayed in re-created rooms separated by black curtains.

Participants learned of Reshma, a Bangladeshi woman abandoned by her family at age 10 and sold into prostitution, and her hopes that young daughter Sonali might avoid a similar fate. Another room told the tale of Absi, a 10-year-old Syrian refugee forced into labor for mere survival, while a third discussed the terrors of child sacrifice in Uganda.

Each story highlighted World Vision’s approach of finding meaningful, practical ways of helping poor communities sustain healthy lives. At the end of the exhibit, participants were offered an opportunity to help World Vision by sponsoring a child in need.

“It really shows what World Vision is doing in these areas to combat the terrible things that are happening there,” Ang Garrett, who oversees World Vision church events, said of the exhibit. “We don’t want to be a handout organization — we want to train people and help them get what they need.”

Megan Katerjian, La Cañada Presbyterian Church’s associate pastor of outreach, said the exhibit helps people connect to the problems happening in the world, and to potential solutions.

“The idea is to transport you into these different, very difficult places and imagine what life is like there,” Katerjian said. “It’s harsh to see tragedies like that around the world and not want to respond.”

Julia Wells, a student at Fuller Theological Seminary who leads a young adult Bible study group on the LCPC campus, took a small group of students through the World Vision Experience on Tuesday. She said it’s important to engage young people in wider global issues.

“We thought it would be good to have an outreach opportunity to engage in a discussion beyond what’s going on in our own little world,” Wells said in an interview Wednesday. “Especially for young adult age groups, it’s hard to look beyond what you’re dealing with.”

The students were visibly touched by what they’d seen, and Well said she hopes to sponsor a child through World Vision for her own niece and nephew so they could engage in the letter- writing process with a young person from another country.

“I want to help educate my niece and nephew, and everyone else, by (their) having that interaction,” she added. “That’s where my heart is.”

Reaching people on an emotional level, and then giving them a chance to make a tangible difference in world affairs is exactly the point, Katerjian said.

“These are stories that touch all of us,” she added.

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @saracardine